Nobody seems to know who ‘Lucio Dornano’ was, though we have a pen and ink portrait of him by Luc Lafnet, and we know that during the 1920s he wrote several volumes of poetry on erotic religious themes, including Messes païennes (Pagan Masses), Étreintes sacrilèges (Sacrilegious Embraces), La divine orgie (The Divine Orgy), and Extases profane (Profane Ecstasies). Is Dornano a pseudonym, or did a poet named Dornano really live in Montmartre in the mid-1920s?

Étreintes sacrilèges contains twelve sonnets, each of which is illustrated by Lafnet in a tightly-composed etching including the poem’s title; the illustrations show Lafnet at the height of his skills, and while Dornano’s poems are not of a particularly high calibre Lafnet’s engravings most certainly are.

Étreintes sacrilèges was published by Éditions Girard et Bunino in a numbered limited edition of 110 copies.