Khlebnikov, Velimir. Excerpt from the Tables of Destiny: Sheets 1, 2 (of 3) (Otryvok iz Dosok Sud'by). Cover design by Anatolii Borisov, 1922. In Russian.

Хлебников, Велемир. Отрывок из Досок судьбы. [Лист 1-й ; Лист 2-й] / Велемир Хлебников ; обложка Листа 1 работы Анатолия Борисова.
Москва : Типография при фабрике «Свобода» треста «Жиркость», 1922. Лист 1-й: [2], 16 с. ; Лист 2-й: с. 17-34 ; 25 × 17,2 см.
Мягкие издательские обложки. Обложка Листа 1 отпечатана тиражом 1000 экз. в типолитографии «Типолитогравер» (Бутырки) ; тираж текстового блока 500 экз. (типография «Свобода»). Лист 3 (Москва, 1923) в данном экземпляре отсутствует.
На с. 1 Листа 1 - рукописная монограмма красновато-коричневыми чернилами в правом верхнем углу.
Обложка Листа 1 - хорошо: значительный возрастной износ, заломы по корешковому сгибу и углах; конструктивистский рисунок полный и читаемый. Блоки обоих листов - хорошо: интенсивное возрастное пожелтение бумаги; страницы полные, текст читаемый.
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Khlebnikov, Velimir. Otryvok iz Dosok Sud'by. [Excerpt from the Tables of Destiny, Sheet 1; Sheet 2 (of 3)] / cover of Sheet 1 by Anatolii Borisov.
Moscow : Printing House at the Svoboda Factory of the Zhirkost Trust, 1922. Sheet 1: [2], 16 pp. ; Sheet 2: pp. 17-34 ; 25 x 17.2 cm.
Original publisher's wrappers: cover of Sheet 1 printed separately in an edition of 1,000 copies at the Tipolitograver press (Butyrki); text edition of 500 copies each (Svoboda press). Sheet 3 (Moscow, 1923) not present.
Sheet 1, p. 1: previous owner's monogram in reddish-brown ink at upper right corner.
Wrappers of Sheet 1 good: heavy age wear at spine fold and corners; constructivist design complete and legible throughout. Text blocks of both sheets good: uniformly age-toned; pages complete and legible.

"Excerpt from the Tables of Destiny" is one of the most significant and sought-after publications of Russian Futurism, representing the final phase of Velimir Khlebnikov's lifelong project to decode the mathematical laws governing the rise and fall of civilizations. Khlebnikov (1885-1922) - known by the self-chosen name Velimir ("Commander of the World"), hailed by Roman Jakobson as "the greatest world poet of the twentieth century" and by Mayakovsky as "a Columbus of new poetical continents" - held that all historical events could be read through powers of 2 and 3: intervals of 3¹¹ days (approximately 48 years) structured imperial cycles from ancient Persia to modern Russia, and these numerical patterns allowed the prophetic mind to anticipate the future. Sheet 1 was signed to press March 21, 1922, and reached readers while Khlebnikov was still alive; it contains the famous poem "If I turn humanity into a clock..." dated January 28, 1922, one of his most concentrated statements of mathematical messianism. Sheet 2 was signed to press December 14, 1922, five months after Khlebnikov's death from exhaustion and typhoid at Santalovo on June 28, 1922; it presents his tables of world-historical events aligned against powers of 3¹¹ to demonstrate the universal periodicity of empires. The cover of Sheet 1 was printed separately in 1,000 copies at the Butyrki press - a bold Constructivist typographic composition by Anatolii Borisov deploying monumental slab-serif letterforms against a tonal geometricized ground, and cited in the standard bibliography of Russian Constructivist books at Hellyer 189. The complete series runs to three sheets; Sheet 3 (Moscow, 1923) is absent from the present lot.