The Legend of Monte Della Sibilla or Le Paradis de la Reine Sibille

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The Legend of Monte Della Sibilla or Le Paradis de la Reine Sibille

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This book, written by Clive Bell, hand-printed by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, and illustrated by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant (Quentin Bell later attributes the cover solely to Vanessa, according to Woolmer 27) represents an embodiment of Bloomsbury artistic collaboration. The poem itself is a comical retelling of the legend of the Sibyl, an enigmatic mythical fgure who appears in different guises in different literary and classical traditions, but who is usually associated with sorcery and prophecy. Bell's version jokes about the unstable and untrustworthy source material for the myth, extending the mock-challenge that "It is portentiously ill writ; / Scholars must make the best of it."