François Villon (1431–63) is the best-known French poet of the late middle ages. A vagabond and petty criminal who spent time in prison and came close to the gallows, Villon wrote about these experiences in his poems.

Villon was a great poetic innovator; he understood perfectly the medieval courtly ideal, but often chose to write against the grain, reversing the values and celebrating low-lifes destined for the gallows, falling happily into parody or lewd jokes, constantly innovating in his diction and vocabulary; a few poems make extensive use of Parisian thieves’ slang. Villon’s verse is mostly about his own life, a record of poverty, trouble, and travail which was shared by his intended audience. His poems are sprinkled with mysteries and hidden jokes, peppered with the slang of the time and the underworld subculture in which Villon moved.

This privately-published edition of Villon is beautifully produced, with clear open typography and nearly sixty of Charles Martin’s witty coloured illustrations woven into the text design. The reference to ‘companions of the galley’ as the publisher suggests a tongue-in-cheek reference to the select group of collectors subscribing to this very limited edition. The only downside to the production is that the darker colours in the prints have – in every case – offset onto the opposite page because guard tissues were not used. Fortunately digital restoration has allowed us to remove the effects of the offsetting from this complete portfolio.

The Charles Martin illustrated Villon was published ‘Aux dépens des compagnons de la galère’ (at the expense of the companions of the galley), in a limited, numbered and boxed edition of 125 copies.