Satyricon is a Latin work of fiction believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius, though the manuscript tradition identifies the author as Titus Petronius. It contains a mixture of prose and verse, with serious and comic elements and many erotic and decadent passages. The surviving sections of the original, much longer, text detail the bizarre exploits of the narrator, Encolpius, and his slave and boyfriend Giton, a handsome sixteen-year-old boy.

It seems an odd choice for Editions du Baniyan to have commissioned Barret illustrations for, especially since it contains few female characters, but this has not prevented publisher and illustrator from introducing them freely as needed! The edition from which the illustrations shown here are reproduced is from the small number which included ‘remarques’ or additional marginal drawings, here added rather sketchily but all very naked.

The Barret-illustrated Satyricon was published by Editions du Baniyan in a limited numbered edition of 490 copies.