ABSTRACT
Italo Calvino's children's books really require separate discussion. There is the 1963 Marcovaldo, first illustrated by an Italian comic-strip author, Sergio Tofano; the beautiful selections of fairytales illustrated by Emanuele Luzzati; and the story La foresta-radice-labirinto, illustrated by Gianni Ronco for Emme Edizioni. The young readers to whom Calvino intended to address himself are, in short, children who want to grow up. It seems to be possible to distinguish four phases or moments in the history of Calvino's book covers. The covers from the 1950s are denser, more classically figurative, and more crowded with images. The cover of The Non-Existent Knight is illustrated with a detail from a Renaissance work, The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello. Commenting on the painting, Gombrich observed that 'both the horses and the men look a little wooden, almost like toys, and the whole gay picture seems very remote from the reality of war.
