DÍAZ (Leopoldo). Las Sombras de Hellas. The Shadows of Hellas. Genève : Ch. Eggimann & Cie ; Paris : H. Floury, 1902. - In-8, 207 x 144: (4 ff.), 211 pp., (3 ff.), illustrated cover. Marbled brown calf, first board decorated with a Gorgon's head mosaic of dark green, orange and brown morocco, in an oval of gray morocco, cold filets on the edge of the boards, spine in prolongation of the nerves, spine with nerves decorated with a gilt fleuron, gilt filets and fleurons inside, gilt edges on witnesses, cover and spine preserved, case (Ch. Meunier). Bilingual first edition, dedicated to José Maria de Heredia, of this collection of sonnets by Argentine poet and diplomat Leopoldo Díaz (1862-1947), prefaced by Remy de Gourmont. Each poem, in Spanish, is accompanied by a French translation by Frédéric Raisin (1851-1923). "Les [...] sonnets de L. Diaz ont trouvé dans M. Raisin un traducteur hors ligne, et [...] après leur passage en langue française certains sont encore plus beaux qu'en espagnol [...] Sûrement le souffle de nostalgie, de mélancolie vague qu'on sent onduler dans les poésies de L. Diaz's poems, the mystery that floats in the images, the feeling that arises from the very depths of thought, would lose nothing in Mallarmé's language, which is more polished than our own, and also better suited to expressing this kind of feeling" (Mercure de France, vol. 48, 1903, p. 554). Each page is decorated with black ornamentation, except for the first poem, which in both versions is framed with green foliage. ONE OF 20 EXEMPLIES ON JAPAN, the only large paper edition mentioned, signed by Diaz and Raisin at the justification. It is enriched by this autograph letter from the translator to Abbé Blandin: à Monsieur l'Abbé Blandin // affectueux hommage // FRaisin // Genève - Fév. 1903 A very fine copy bound by Charles Meunier. Provenance: Abbé Blandin, with consignment from the translator.