This book was commissioned by Gustavo Gili, Senior, in 1927, for the collection of bibliophile books he published under the name of 'Ediciones de la Cometa'. Picasso alludes to this in the drypoint he made for the cover because it shows a kite; cometa in Spanish means kite. Picasso made a few prints for the book and then the wars in Spain and elsewhere put an end to the project. In 1956 Gustavo Gili, Junior, reminded Picasso of the book. In the spring of 1957, at Cannes, several days after the Easter corrida that the artist had attended at Arles, he started work again. Using a brush, he painted on the copperplates directly, creating a sort of 'stenogram' of light and shade, which is the modern equivalent of Goya's Tauromaquia of 1815. Picasso's 26 aquatints accompany the text written by the famous torero, Pepe Illo, his manual, which was published in 1796, was the first handbook for toreros and aficionados. Patrick Cramer Pablo Picasso, The Illustrated Books, 1983, p. 252.