BONNARD (Pierre) - VERLAINE (Paul). Parallèlement. Paris : Imprimerie Nationale, Ambroise Vollard, 1900. - In-4, 295 x 242: (4 ff. first blank), 139 pp. (2 ff. last blank), printed cover. Jansenist cherry morocco, smooth spine, dark pink suede lining and endpapers, gilt edges on witnesses, cover and spine preserved, cherry morocco spine and flap folder, lined slipcase (Creuzevault). Montel, Bibliographie de Paul Verlaine, 1924, p. 12. - Galantaris, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, pp. 133-135. One of the masterpieces of the illustrated book, considered the first modern painter's book. This is the first illustrated edition of Parallèlement, also including Les Sonnets des Amies, completed on September 29, 1900 and announced in the Bibliographie de la France of January 19, 1901. Illustrated with 109 original lithographs by Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), printed in pink, and 8 woodcut drawings by Tony Beltrand, printed in black, this book is the fruit of an exceptional collaboration between poetry and the visual arts. As Antoine Terrasse points out, "It's not surprising that Ambroise Vollard thought of Bonnard to illustrate Parallèlement by Verlaine. He was familiar with the artist's drawings for Marie; and he had seen the painting L'indolente, a drawing of which appears in the book, at the group exhibition organized by Durand-Ruel in May 1899. To accompany Verlaine's poems, Bonnard invented an irregular composition, the lithographs playing with the stanzas, embracing them, mingling with them or slipping into the margins, voluptuous and tender images whose power of suggestion is miraculously allied to the poet's art" (Antoine Terrasse, Pierre Bonnard, 1967, p.. 61). The printing, carried out on the hand presses of the Imprimerie Nationale, uses a typeface engraved in 1540 by Garamond on the orders of François I. The lithographs, hand-printed by Auguste Clot, use a blood-pink ink specially chosen by Bonnard to render Verlaine's "poetic atmosphere". Limited edition of 200 copies, plus 21 copies on Hollande vellum (lettered a to u), not mentioned in the justification, and a few chapel copies. This is one of 170 copies on Hollande vellum, numbered from 31 to 200, and bears the number 89. First-issue copy, with the Imprimerie Nationale mark on the title and cover, and the protocol leaf "Imprimé par décision spéciale de Monsieur le Garde des Sceaux, Ministre de la Justice". The Imprimerie Nationale, having realized in hindsight the sensual nature of Verlaine's text and Bonnard's illustrations, ordered these to be quickly replaced by illustrations by the artist. Superb copy in a sober but perfect Jansenist binding by Creuzevault, very well preserved, with no foxing or transfers of the lithographs.