# Is "Cuttlefish Bones (Ossi di seppia)" by Eugenio Montale a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Cuttlefish Bones (Ossi di seppia) by Eugenio Montale (Piero Gobetti Editore, 1925) is identified by: The true first is the Piero Gobetti Editore issue, Turin, June 1925 (printed by Tipografia Carlo Accame): a slim octavo of roughly 205 x 130 mm, about 100 pages, in two-color editorial wrappers (beige/tan stock with a brown-and-gold ruled frame and black lettering on covers and spine) bearing the small editorial ornament (fregio) designed by Felice Casorati that is typical of Gobetti imprints. The true first edition is the original-language Italian: Ossi di seppia, Piero Gobetti Editore, Turin, 1925 — the book serious collectors pursue (its original working title was Rottami).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is the Piero Gobetti Editore issue, Turin, June 1925 (printed by Tipografia Carlo Accame): a slim octavo of roughly 205 x 130 mm, about 100 pages, in two-color editorial wrappers (beige/tan stock with a brown-and-gold ruled frame and black lettering on covers and spine) bearing the small editorial ornament (fregio) designed by Felice Casorati that is typical of Gobetti imprints
- The documented print run is 1,000 unnumbered copies plus a small, indefinite de luxe run on luxury paper ("carta di lusso"); a planned 15 numbered copies appears never to have been printed, as no numbered examples are recorded
- The imprint reads "Piero Gobetti Editore, Torino, 1925," and the volume gathers Montale's 43 debut poems (about a dozen previously seen in periodicals such as Primo tempo)
- Complete copies retain the initial blank leaf — dealers routinely flag its absence as a defect
- References: Barile, Bibliografia montaliana (Milan, 1977), A1
- Gambetti/Vezzosi, Rarità bibliografiche del Novecento italiano (Milan, 2007)
- Publisher imprint reads Piero Gobetti Editore

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Eugenio Montale |
| Publisher | Piero Gobetti Editore |
| Year | 1925 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | The true first is the Piero Gobetti Editore issue, Turin, June 1925 (printed by Tipografia Carlo Accame): a slim octavo of roughly 205 x… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first is the Piero Gobetti Editore issue, Turin, June 1925 (printed by Tipografia Carlo Accame): a slim octavo of roughly 205 x 130 mm, about 100 pages, in two-color editorial wrappers (beige/tan stock with a brown-and-gold ruled frame and black lettering on covers and spine) bearing the small editorial ornament (fregio) designed by Felice Casorati that is typical of Gobetti imprints. The documented print run is 1,000 unnumbered copies plus a small, indefinite de luxe run on luxury paper ("carta di lusso"); a planned 15 numbered copies appears never to have been printed, as no numbered examples are recorded. The imprint reads "Piero Gobetti Editore, Torino, 1925," and the volume gathers Montale's 43 debut poems (about a dozen previously seen in periodicals such as Primo tempo). Complete copies retain the initial blank leaf — dealers routinely flag its absence as a defect. References: Barile, Bibliografia montaliana (Milan, 1977), A1; Gambetti/Vezzosi, Rarità bibliografiche del Novecento italiano (Milan, 2007); Accame-Lanzillotta, Le edizioni e i tipografi Gobetti, no. 69.

## Is this the true first?
The true first edition is the original-language Italian: Ossi di seppia, Piero Gobetti Editore, Turin, 1925 — the book serious collectors pursue (its original working title was Rottami). The first complete collection in English is generally taken to be Antonino Mazza's The Bones of Cuttlefish, Mosaic Press (Oakville, Ontario, Canada), 1983; the widely held standard American translation is William Arrowsmith's Cuttlefish Bones (1920-1927), W. W. Norton (New York), 1992 (US trade printing 1993; ISBN 0-393-02803-8). Individual poems reached English earlier — most notably "Arsenio," translated by Mario Praz and published in Eliot's The Criterion in 1928 — but those are periodical appearances, and earlier New Directions/Farnsworth volumes were selections, not a complete Ossi di seppia in English.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
There is no U.S. book-club (BOMC-type) edition of the Italian first to worry about; the collecting confusion here is edition precedence, not a club reprint. The real traps are later Italian printings passed off as the first: the 1928 Fratelli Ribet (Turin) SECOND edition (450 numbered copies plus 22 on handmade paper, enlarged with six added lyrics) and the 1931 R. Carabba (Lanciano) THIRD edition (with Gargiulo preface, a Scipione-illustrated wrapper, important variants, and genuine copies carrying Montale's autograph "E.M." initials) — neither is the Gobetti first. Reprints of the Einaudi collected/Meridiani text and modern anastatic facsimiles of the 1925 Gobetti also circulate; verify the "Piero Gobetti Editore, Torino, 1925" imprint, the Casorati fregio, the ~100-page collation, and the original tan wrappers rather than trusting the 1925 date alone. On the English side, the common trap is treating the 1992/93 Arrowsmith/Norton edition as the first English — Mazza's 1983 Mosaic Press book precedes it as a complete rendering.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Cuttlefish Bones (Ossi di seppia)* by Eugenio Montale a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/cuttlefish-bones
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.