Nioque de l’Avant-Printemps

One of forty-three copies on Holland paper before sixty-three copies on Arches vellum .

"NIOQUE is the phonetic writing (as one could write inivrant ) of GNOQUE, a word coined by me from the Greek root meaning knowledge , and not to repeat Satie's GNOSSIENNE or Claudel's CONNAISSANCE (from the East).
Francis Ponge

Francis Ponge

Born on March 27, 1899 in Montpellier, Francis Ponge met Jacques Rivière and Jean Paulhan and entered the Alliance Française in 1952. He received the International Poetry Prize in 1959 and his various collections earned him a first-rate audience, particularly among young literature. Francis Ponge died in Bar-sur-Loup on August 6, 1988.