The Betrothed

Lombardy under Spanish rule, two peasants forbidden to marry by a local lord, and a famine, a riot and the plague between them and the altar. Manzoni's novel is the founding text of modern Italian prose - he rewrote it entirely in Florentine to fix the language of a country that did not yet exist. This edition binds 58 plates with the text, among them paintings by Munch, Rubens and van Goyen, alongside a restored and coloured illustration.