Umbrae Vergilianae by Robert Bush

This delightful little book, published in a limited edition of just seventy copies, explores the use of the word umbra in the Aeneid. The introduction tells us that "The word umbra recurs throughout the Aeneid ... it appears seventy times, at least once in each of the twelve books ...Umbra has some of the range of meanings of our word 'shade'. ... most often it denotes forbidding gloom."

Each selected umbra appears with an illustration created by "soaking sheets of Khadi paper  ... in Chinese ink of various strength and working on them with water, ink, charcoal and white chalk."

The deep love of the author for this epic poem is embodied in the care and attention lavished on this extraordinary work. Only seventy copies have been published and a cheap paperback may sell millions and it may be that the cheap paperback is a work of art and of beauty but this is certainly a work of love, of art, and of beauty.

Latin and English