Art and Scholasticism. With Other Essays by... Translated by J.F. Scanlan.
London: Sheed and Ward, 1930. First edition thus. 8vo. xii, 232 pp. Publisher's black cloth, gilt lettered to the spine, Eric Gill's copy, inscribed by him in his distinctive hand on the front free endpaper "E.G. Pigotts. Mch, 1930 from G.K.'s Weekly (for review)". Occasional light edge wear and a few marks to the covers, else very good. This work, by the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, was first published in France in 1920. Gill was purportedly introduced to it by his mentor Father Vincent McNabb and was so taken with it that he produced the first English edition for the St. Dominic's Press in 1923. Translated by Father John O'Connor, it was published under the title "The Philosophy of Art". Fiona MacCarthy refers to Gill's involvement in that edition and the profound effect it had on the wider artistic Ditchling community -"When St. Dominic's Press was printing [it] the brethren tended to congregate around the chapel soon after the nine o'clock sung office and would then discuss the finer points of Maritain all morning." The influence of the work on Gill lasted too. Years later, after Gill had moved to Capel-y-ffin and started another artists colony, René Hague would refer to "endless talking, in particular about Maritain and the philosophy of art". Evan Gill 127. Item #42508
Price: £350.00