After the French Liberation of Italy (proof)

[London], 1869. Very Good. Rare. This is a single leaf, with the poem dated "D.G.R. 1859" below the text. The sonnet was printed as part of the proof process for Rossetti's Poems, published in April 1870. Rossetti decided not to include the poem after all because of its erotic nature and reference to prostitution. Thus the poem was written in 1859 but not published until 1904, many years after Rossetti's death. William Michael Rossetti, in his Bibliography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1904) considers this as a separate item of importance. There are only four copies in Worldcat (Lilly, Princeton, Texas, and Huntington). Two tiny chips on right side of page (truncated) else in very good condition. Although there is no evidence with this item of its provenance, it is supposedly from the collection of William E. Fredeman, the Pre-Raphaelite bibliographer and collector. PRERAPH/120114. (Inventory #: 27832)