The Nonexistent Knight (1959/1962) First Edition Reference

Il cavaliere inesistente (Einaudi, 1959) completes the Our Ancestors trilogy. Agilulf is a knight in Charlemagne’s army who exists as pure willpower inside an empty suit of armor — he is perfectly competent, scrupulously correct, and entirely nonexistent. The English translation was published with The Cloven Viscount by Random House in 1962.

First Edition Identification

Italian: Einaudi, 1959. English: Random House, 1962 (combined volume with The Cloven Viscount).

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed Italian first: $400–$1,000
• Signed combined English first: $150–$400

The Nonexistent Knight is the most philosophically pointed of the trilogy — its exploration of identity, existence, and the relationship between will and being anticipates Calvino’s later metafictional concerns.