At the other end of his artistic career from Cirkus Eros, Uzelac was commissioned to produce sixteen illustrations for a new edition of the short erotic tales of the Italian scholar and early Renaissance humanist Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459), known in French as ‘Le Pogge’. This collection brings together more than a hundred libertine tales, including the monk who brings a woman into his cell to live with, a courtesan who falls in love with his barber, and the holy father who impregnates an abbess.

The stencilled colouring of the engravings offers subtle and beautiful results, some of Uzelac’s most successful book illustrations.

Contes libertin was published by Editions du Rameau d’Or, Paris, in a limited numbered edition of 900 copies. Ten special ‘hors commerce’ copies were accompanied by an original engraving, one of which is included here.