Project Gutenberg's The Art and Craft of Printing, by William Morris
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Title: The Art and Craft of Printing
Author: William Morris
Release Date: March 10, 2010 [EBook #31596]
Language: English
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THE ART AND CRAFT OF PRINTING, BY WILLIAM MORRIS.
A NOTE BY WILLIAM MORRIS ON HIS AIMS IN FOUNDING THE KELMSCOTT PRESS,
TOGETHER WITH A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESS BY S. C. COCKERELL, AND
AN ANNOTATED LIST OF THE BOOKS PRINTED THEREAT.
Copyright, 1902 By H. M. O'Kane
[Illustration: PSYCHE BORNE OFF BY ZEPHYRUS, DRAWN BY EDWARD BURNE-JONES
& ENGRAVED BY WILLIAM MORRIS]
[Illustration: NOTE BY WILLIAM MORRIS ON HIS AIMS IN FOUNDING THE
KELMSCOTT PRESS]
I began printing books with the hope of producing some which would have
a definite claim to beauty, while at the same time they should be easy
to read and should not dazzle the eye, or trouble the intellect of the
reader by eccentricity of form in the letters. I have always been a
great admirer of the calligraphy of the Middle Ages, & of the earlier
printing which took its place. As to the fifteenth-century books, I had
noticed that they were always beautiful by force of the mere typography,
even without the added ornament, with which many of them are so lavishly
supplied. And it was the essence of my undertaking to produce books
which it would be a pleasure to look upon as pieces of printing and
arrangement of type. Looking at my adventure from this point of view
then, I found I had to consider chiefly the following things: the paper,
the form of the type, the relative spacing of the letters, the words,
and the lines; and lastly the position of the printed matter on the
page. It was a matter of course that I should consider it necessary that
the paper should be hand-made, both for the sake of durability and
appearance. It would be a very false economy to stint in the quality of
the paper as to price: so I had only to think about the kind of
hand-made paper. On this head I came to two conclusions: 1st, that the
paper must be wholly of linen (most hand-made papers are of cotton
today), and must be quite 'hard,' i. e., thoroughly well sized; and 2nd,
that, though it must be 'laid' and not 'wove' (i. e., made on a mould
made of obvious wires), the lines caused by the wires of the mould must
not be too strong, so as to give a ribbed appearance. I found that on
these points I was at one with the practice of the paper-makers of the
fifteenth century; so I took as my model a Bolognese paper of about
1473. My friend Mr. Batchelor, of Little Chart, Kent, carried out my
views very satisfactorily, and produced from the first the excellent
paper, which I still use.
Next as to type. By instinct rather than by conscious thinking it over,
I began by getting myself a fount of Roman type. And here what I wanted
was letter pure in form; severe, without needless excrescences; solid,
without the thickening and thinning of the line, which is the essential
fault of the ordinary modern type, and which makes it difficult to read;
and not compressed laterally, as all later type has grown to be owing to
commercial exigencies. There was only one source from which to take
examples of this perfected Roman type, to wit, the works of the great
Venetian printers of the fifteenth century, of whom Nicholas Jenson
produced the completest and most Roman characters from 1470 to 1476.
This type I studied with much care, getting it photographed to a big
scale, and drawing it over many times before I began designing my own
letter; so that though I think I mastered the essence of it, I did not
copy it servilely; in fact, my Roman type, especially in the lower case,
tends rather more to the Gothic than does Jenson's.
After a while I felt that I must have a Gothic as well as a Roman fount;
and herein the task I set myself was to redeem the Gothic character from
the charge of unreadableness which is commonly brought against it. And I
felt that this charge could not be reasonably brought against the types
of the first two decades of printing: that Schoeffer at Mainz, Mentelin
at Strasburg, and Gunther Zainer at Augsburg, avoided the spiky ends and
undue compression which lay some of the later type open to the above
charge. Only the earlier printers (naturally following therein the
practice of their predecessors the scribes) were very liberal of
contractions, and used an excess of 'tied' letters, which, by the way,
are very useful to the compositor. So I entirely eschewed contractions,
except for the '&,' and had very few tied letters, in fact none but the
absolutely necessary ones. Keeping my end steadily in view, I designed a
black-letter type which I think I may claim to be as readable as a Roman
one, and to say the truth I prefer it to the Roman. This type is of the
size called Great Primer (the Roman type is of 'English' size); but
later on I was driven by the necessities of the Chaucer (a
double-columned book) to get a smaller Gothic type of Pica size.
The punches for all these types, I may mention, were cut for me with
great intelligence and skill by Mr. E. P. Prince, and render my designs
most satisfactorily.
Now as to the spacing: First, the 'face' of the letter should be as
nearly conterminous with the 'body' as possible, so as to avoid undue
whites between the letters. Next, the lateral spaces between the words
should be (a) no more than is necessary to distinguish clearly the
division into words, and (b) should be as nearly equal as possible.
Modern printers, even the best, pay very little heed to these two
essentials of seemly composition, and the inferior ones run riot in
licentious spacing, thereby producing, inter alia, those ugly rivers of
lines running about the page which are such a blemish to decent
printing. Third, the whites between the lines should not be excessive;
the modern practice of 'leading' should be used as little as possible,
and never without some definite reason, such as marking some special
piece of printing. The only leading I have allowed myself is in some
cases a 'thin' lead between the lines of my Gothic pica type: in the
Chaucer and the double-columned books I have used a 'hair' lead, and not
even this in the 16mo books. Lastly, but by no means least, comes the
position of the printed matter on the page. This should always leave the
inner margin the narrowest, the top somewhat wider, the outside
(fore-edge) wider still, and the bottom widest of all. This rule is
never departed from in mediæval books, written or printed. Modern
printers systematically transgress against it; thus apparently
contradicting the fact that the unit of a book is not one page, but a
pair of pages. A friend, the librarian of one of our most important
private libraries, tells me that after careful testing he has come to
the conclusion that the mediæval rule was to make a difference of 20 per
cent. from margin to margin. Now these matters of spacing and position
are of the greatest importance in the production of beautiful books; if
they are properly considered they will make a book printed in quite
ordinary type at least decent and pleasant to the eye. The disregard of
them will spoil the effect of the best designed type.
It was only natural that I, a decorator by profession, should attempt to
ornament my books suitably: about this matter, I will only say that I
have always tried to keep in mind the necessity for making my decoration
a part of the page of type. I may add that in designing the magnificent
and inimitable woodcuts which have adorned several of my books, and will
above all adorn the Chaucer which is now drawing near completion, my
friend Sir Edward Burne-Jones has never lost sight of this important
point, so that his work will not only give us a series of most beautiful
and imaginative pictures, but form the most harmonious decoration
possible to the printed book.
Kelmscott House, Upper Mall, Hammersmith. Nov. 11, 1895
A SHORT HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE KELMSCOTT PRESS.
The foregoing article was written at the request of a London bookseller
for an American client who was about to read a paper on the Kelmscott
Press. As the Press is now closing, and its seven years' existence will
soon be a matter of history, it seems fitting to set down some other
facts concerning it while they can still be verified; the more so as
statements founded on imperfect information have appeared from time to
time in newspapers and reviews.
As early as 1866 an edition of The Earthly Paradise was projected, which
was to have been a folio in double columns, profusely illustrated by Sir
Edward Burne-Jones, and typographically superior to the books of that
time. The designs for the stories of Cupid and Psyche, Pygmalion and the
Image, The Ring given to Venus, and the Hill of Venus, were finished,
and forty-four of those for Cupid and Psyche were engraved on wood in
line, somewhat in the manner of the early German masters. About
thirty-five of the blocks were executed by William Morris himself, and
the remainder by George Y. Wardle, G. F. Campfield, C. J. Faulkner, and
Miss Elizabeth Burden. Specimen pages were set up in Caslon type, and in
the Chiswick Press type afterwards used in The House of the Wolfings,
but for various reasons the project went no further. Four or five years
later there was a plan for an illustrated edition of Love is Enough, for
which two initial L's and seven side ornaments were drawn and engraved
by William Morris. Another marginal ornament was engraved by him from a
design by Sir E. Burne-Jones, who also drew a picture for the
frontispiece, which has now been engraved by W. H. Hooper for the final
page of the Kelmscott Press edition of the work. These side ornaments,
three of which appear on the opposite page, are more delicate than any
that were designed for the Kelmscott Press, but they show that when the
Press was started the idea of reviving some of the decorative features
of the earliest printed books had been long in its founder's mind. At
this same period, in the early seventies, he was much absorbed in the
study of ancient manuscripts, and in writing out and illuminating
various books, including a Horace and an Omar Khayyám, which may have
led his thoughts away from printing. In any case, the plan of an
illustrated Love is Enough, like that of the folio Earthly Paradise, was
abandoned.
Although the books written by William Morris continued to be reasonably
printed, it was not until about 1888 that he again paid much attention
to typography. He was then, and for the rest of his life, when not away
from Hammersmith, in daily communication with his friend and neighbour
Emery Walker, whose views on the subject coincided with his own, and who
had besides a practical knowledge of the technique of printing. These
views were first expressed in an article by Mr. Walker in the catalogue
of the exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, held at the
New Gallery in the autumn of 1888. As a result of many conversations,
The House of the Wolfings was printed at the Chiswick Press at this
time, with a special type modelled on an old Basel fount, unleaded, and
with due regard to proportion in the margins. The title-page was also
carefully arranged. In the following year The Roots of the Mountains was
printed with the same type (except the lower case e), but with a
differently proportioned page, and with shoulder-notes instead of
head-lines. This book was published in November, 1889, and its author
declared it to be the best-looking book issued since the seventeenth
century. Instead of large paper copies, which had been found
unsatisfactory in the case of The House of the Wolfings, two hundred and
fifty copies were printed on Whatman paper of about the same size as the
paper of the ordinary copies. A small stock of this paper remained over,
and in order to dispose of it seventy-five copies of the translation of
the Gunnlaug Saga, which first appeared in the Fortnightly Review of
January, 1869, and afterwards in Three Northern Love Stories, were
printed at the Chiswick Press. The type used was a black-letter copied
from one of Caxton's founts, and the initials were left blank to be
rubricated by hand. Three copies were printed on vellum. This little
book was not however finished until November, 1890.
[Illustration: Ornaments designed and engraved for Love is Enough.]
Meanwhile William Morris had resolved to design a type of his own.
Immediately after The Roots of the Mountains appeared, he set to work
upon it, and in December, 1889, he asked Mr. Walker to go into
partnership with him as a printer. This offer was declined by Mr.
Walker; but, though not concerned with the financial side of the
enterprise, he was virtually a partner in the Kelmscott Press from its
first beginnings to its end, and no important step was taken without his
advice and approval. Indeed, the original intention was to have the
books set up in Hammersmith and printed at his office in Clifford's Inn.
It was at this time that William Morris began to collect the mediæval
books of which he formed so fine a library in the next six years. He had
made a small collection of such books years before, but had parted with
most of them, to his great regret. He now bought with the definite
purpose of studying the type and methods of the early printers. Among
the first books so acquired was a copy of Leonard of Arezzo's History of
Florence, printed at Venice by Jacobus Rubeus in 1476, in a Roman type
very similar to that of Nicholas Jenson. Parts of this book and of
Jenson's Pliny of 1476 were enlarged by photography in order to bring
out more clearly the characteristics of the various letters; and having
mastered both their virtues and defects, William Morris proceeded to
design the fount of type which, in the list of December, 1892, he named
the Golden type, from The Golden Legend, which was to have been the
first book printed with it. This fount consists of eighty-one designs,
including stops, figures, and tied letters. The lower case alphabet was
finished in a few months. The first letter having been cut in Great
Primer size by Mr. Prince, was thought too large, and 'English' was the
size resolved upon. By the middle of August, 1890, eleven punches had
been cut. At the end of the year the fount was all but complete.
On Jan. 12th, 1891, a cottage, No. 16, Upper Mall, was taken. Mr.
William Bowden, a retired master-printer, had already been engaged to
act as compositor and pressman. Enough type was then cast for a trial
page, which was set up and printed on Saturday, Jan. 31st, on a sample
of the paper that was being made for the Press by J. Batchelor and Son.
About a fortnight later ten reams of paper were delivered. On Feb. 18th
a good supply of type followed. Mr. W. H. Bowden, who subsequently
became overseer, then joined his father as compositor, and the first
chapters of The Glittering Plain were set up. The first sheet appears to
have been printed on March 2nd, when the staff was increased to three by
the addition of a pressman named Giles, who left as soon as the book was
finished. A friend who saw William Morris on the day after the printing
of the page above mentioned recalls his elation at the success of his
new type. The first volume of the Saga Library, a creditable piece of
printing, was brought out and put beside this trial page, which much
more than held its own. The poet then declared his intention to set to
work immediately on a black-letter fount; illness, however, intervened
and it was not begun until June. The lower case alphabet was finished by
the beginning of August, with the exception of the tied letters, the
designs for which, with those for the capitals, were sent to Mr. Prince
on September 11th. Early in November enough type was cast for two trial
pages, the one consisting of twenty-six lines of Chaucer's Franklin's
Tale and the other of sixteen lines of Sigurd the Volsung. In each of
these a capital I is used that was immediately discarded. On the last
day of 1891 the full stock of Troy type was despatched from the foundry.
Its first appearance was in a paragraph, announcing the book from which
it took its name, in the list dated May, 1892.
This Troy type, which its designer preferred to either of the others,
shows the influence of the beautiful early types of Peter Schoeffer of
Mainz, Gunther Zainer of Augsburg, and Anthony Koburger of Nuremberg;
but, even more than the Golden type, it has a strong character of its
own, which differs largely from that of any mediæval fount. It has
recently been pirated abroad, and is advertised by an enterprising
German firm as 'Die amerikanische Triumph-Gothisch.' The Golden type has
perhaps fared worse in being remodelled in the United States, whence,
with much of its character lost, it has found its way back to England
under the names 'Venetian,' 'Italian,' and 'Jenson.' It is strange that
no one has yet had the good sense to have the actual type of Nicholas
Jenson reproduced.
The third type used at the Kelmscott Press, called the 'Chaucer,'
differs from the Troy type only in size, being Pica instead of Great
Primer. It was cut by Mr. Prince between February and May, 1892, and was
ready in June. Its first appearance is in the list of chapters and
glossary of The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, which was issued on
November 24th, 1892.
On June 2nd of that year, William Morris wrote to Mr. Prince: 'I believe
in about three months' time I shall be ready with a new set of sketches
for a fount of type on English body.' These sketches were not
forthcoming; but on Nov. 5th, 1892, he bought a copy of Augustinus De
Civitate Dei, printed at the Monastery of Subiaco near Rome by Sweynheym
and Pannartz, with a rather compressed type, which appears in only three
known books. He at once designed a lower case alphabet on this model,
but was not satisfied with it and did not have it cut. This was his last
actual experiment in the designing of type, though he sometimes talked
of designing a new fount, and of having the Golden type cut in a larger
size.
Next in importance to the type are the initials, borders, and ornaments
designed by William Morris. The first book contains a single recto
border and twenty different initials. In the next book, Poems by the
Way, the number of different initials is fifty-nine. These early
initials, many of which were soon discarded, are for the most part
suggestive, like the first border, of the ornament in Italian
manuscripts of the fifteenth century. In Blunt's Love Lyrics there are
seven letters of a new alphabet, with backgrounds of naturalesque
grapes and vine leaves, the result of a visit to Beauvais, where the
great porches are carved with vines, in August, 1891. From that time
onwards fresh designs were constantly added, the tendency being always
towards larger foliage and lighter backgrounds, as the early initials
were found to be sometimes too dark for the type. The total number of
initials of various sizes designed for the Kelmscott Press, including a
few that were engraved but never used, is three hundred and eighty-four.
Of the letter T alone there are no less than thirty-four varieties.
The total number of different borders engraved for the Press, including
one that was not used, but excluding the three borders designed for The
Earthly Paradise by R. Catterson-Smith, is fifty-seven. The first book
to contain a marginal ornament, other than these full borders, was The
Defence of Guenevere, which has a half-border on p. 74. There are two
others in the preface to The Golden Legend. The Recuyell of the
Historyes of Troye is the first book in which there is a profusion of
such ornament. One hundred and eight different designs for marginal
ornaments were engraved. Besides the above-named designs, there are
seven frames for the pictures in The Glittering Plain, one frame for
those in a projected edition of The House of the Wolfings, nineteen
frames for the pictures in the Chaucer (one of which was not used in the
book), twenty-eight title-pages and inscriptions, twenty-six large
initial words for the Chaucer, seven initial words for The Well at the
World's End and The Water of the Wondrous Isles, four line-endings, and
three printer's marks, making a total of six hundred and forty-four
designs by William Morris, drawn and engraved within seven years. All
the initials and ornaments that recur were printed from electrotypes,
while most of the title-pages and initial words were printed direct from
the wood. The illustrations by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Walter Crane, and
C. M. Gere were also, with one or two exceptions, printed from the wood.
The original designs by Sir E. Burne-Jones were nearly all in pencil,
and were redrawn in ink by R. Catterson-Smith, and in a few cases by C.
Fairfax Murray; they were then revised by the artist and transferred to
the wood by means of photography. The twelve designs by A. J. Gaskin for
Spenser's Shepheardes Calender, the map in The Sundering Flood, and the
thirty-five reproductions in Some German Woodcuts of the Fifteenth
Century, were printed from process blocks.
All the wood blocks for initials, ornaments, and illustrations, were
engraved by W. H. Hooper, C. E. Keates, and W. Spielmeyer, except the
twenty-three blocks for The Glittering Plain, which were engraved by A.
Leverett, and a few of the earliest initials, engraved by G. F.
Campfield. The whole of these wood blocks have been sent to the British
Museum, and have been accepted with a condition that they shall not be
reproduced or printed from for the space of a hundred years. The
electrotypes have been destroyed. In taking this course, which was
sanctioned by William Morris when the matter was talked of shortly
before his death, the aim of the trustees has been to keep the series of
Kelmscott Press books as a thing apart, and to prevent the designs
becoming stale by constant repetition. Many of them have been stolen and
parodied in America, but in this country they are fortunately copyright.
The type remains in the hands of the trustees, and will be used for the
printing of its designer's works, should special editions be called for.
Other books of which he would have approved may also be printed with it;
the absence of initials and ornament will always distinguish them
sufficiently from the books printed at the Kelmscott Press.
The nature of the English hand-made paper used at the Press has been
described by William Morris in the foregoing article. It was at first
supplied in sheets of which the dimensions were sixteen inches by
eleven. Each sheet had as a watermark a conventional primrose between
the initials W. M. As stated above, The Golden Legend was to have been
the first book put in hand, but as only two pages could have been
printed at a time, and this would have made it very costly, paper of
double the size was ordered for this work, and The Story of the
Glittering Plain was begun instead. This book is a small quarto, as are
its five immediate successors, each sheet being folded twice. The last
ream of the smaller size of paper was used on The Order of Chivalry. All
the other volumes of that series are printed in octavo, on paper of the
double size. For the Chaucer a stouter and slightly larger paper was
needed. This has for its watermark a Perch with a spray in its mouth.
Many of the large quarto books were printed on this paper, of which the
first two reams were delivered in February, 1893. Only one other size of
paper was used at the Kelmscott Press. The watermark of this is an
Apple, with the initials W. M., as in the other two watermarks. The
books printed on this paper are The Earthly Paradise, The Floure and the
Leafe, The Shepheardes Calender, and Sigurd the Volsung. The last-named
is a folio, and the open book shows the size of the sheet, which is
about eighteen inches by thirteen. The first supply of this Apple paper
was delivered on March 15, 1895.
Except in the case of Blunt's Love Lyrics, The Nature of Gothic, Biblia
Innocentium, The Golden Legend, and The Book of Wisdom and Lies, a few
copies of all the books were printed on vellum. The six copies of The
Glittering Plain were printed on very fine vellum obtained from Rome, of
which it was impossible to get a second supply as it was all required by
the Vatican. The vellum for the other books, except for two or three
copies of Poems by the Way, which were on the Roman vellum, was supplied
by H. Band of Brentford, and by W. J. Turney & Co. of Stourbridge. There
are three complete vellum sets in existence, and the extreme difficulty
of completing a set after the copies are scattered, makes it unlikely
that there will ever be a fourth.
The black ink which proved most satisfactory, after that of more than
one English firm had been tried, was obtained from Hanover. William
Morris often spoke of making his own ink, in order to be certain of the
ingredients, but his intention was never carried out.
The binding of the books in vellum and in half-holland was from the
first done by J. & J. Leighton. Most of the vellum used was white, or
nearly so, but William Morris himself preferred it dark, and the skins
showing brown hair-marks were reserved for the binding of his own copies
of the books. The silk ties of four colours, red, blue, yellow, and
green, were specially woven and dyed.
In the following section fifty-two works, in sixty-six volumes, are
described as having been printed at the Kelmscott Press, besides the two
pages of Froissart's Chronicles. It is scarcely necessary to add that
only hand presses have been used, of the type known as 'Albion.' In the
early days there was only one press on which the books were printed,
besides a small press for taking proofs. At the end of May, 1891, larger
premises were taken at 14, Upper Mall, next door to the cottage already
referred to, which was given up in June. In November, 1891, a second
press was bought, as The Golden Legend was not yet half finished, and it
seemed as though the last of its 1286 pages would never be reached.
Three years later another small house was taken, No. 14 being still
retained. This was No. 21, Upper Mall, overlooking the river, which
acted as a reflector, so that there was an excellent light for printing.
In January, 1895, a third press, specially made for the work, was set up
here in order that two presses might be employed on the Chaucer. This
press has already passed into other hands, and the little house, with
its many associations, and its pleasant outlook towards Chiswick and
Mortlake, is now being transformed into a granary. The last sheet
printed there was that on which are the frontispiece and title of this
book.
14, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, January 4, 1898.
AN ANNOTATED LIST OF ALL THE BOOKS PRINTED AT THE KELMSCOTT PRESS IN THE
ORDER IN WHICH THEY WERE ISSUED.
Note: The borders are numbered as far as possible in the order of their
first appearance, those which appear on a verso or left hand page being
distinguished by the addition of the letter 'a' to the numbers of the
recto borders of similar design.
1. THE STORY OF THE GLITTERING PLAIN. WHICH HAS BEEN ALSO CALLED THE
LAND OF LIVING MEN OR THE ACRE OF THE UNDYING. WRITTEN BY WILLIAM
MORRIS. Small 4to. Golden type. Border 1. 200 paper copies at two
guineas, and 6 on vellum. Dated April 4, issued May 8, 1891. Sold by
Reeves & Turner. Bound in stiff vellum with washleather ties.
This book was set up from Nos. 81-4 of the English Illustrated Magazine,
in which it first appeared; some of the chapter headings were
re-arranged, and a few small corrections were made in the text. A trial
page, the first printed at the Press, was struck off on January 31,
1891, but the first sheet was not printed until about a month later. The
border was designed in January of the same year, and engraved by W. H.
Hooper. Mr. Morris had four of the vellum copies bound in green vellum,
three of which he gave to friends. Only two copies on vellum were sold,
at twelve and fifteen guineas. This was the only book with washleather
ties. All the other vellum-bound books have silk ties, except Shelley's
Poems and Hand and Soul, which have no ties.
2. POEMS BY THE WAY. WRITTEN BY WILLIAM MORRIS. Small 4to. Golden type.
In black and red. Border 1. 300 paper copies at two guineas, 13 on
vellum at about twelve guineas. Dated Sept. 24, issued Oct. 20, 1891.
Sold by Reeves & Turner. Bound in stiff vellum.
This was the first book printed at the Kelmscott Press in two colours,
and the first book in which the smaller printer's mark appeared. After
The Glittering Plain was finished, at the beginning of April, no
printing was done until May 11. In the meanwhile the compositors were
busy setting up the early sheets of The Golden Legend. The printing of
Poems by the Way, which its author first thought of calling Flores
Atramenti, was not begun until July. The poems in it were written at
various times. In the manuscript, Hafbur and Signy is dated February 4,
1870; Hildebrand and Hillilel, March 1, 1871; and Love's Reward,
Kelmscott, April 21, 1871. Meeting in Winter is a song from The Story of
Orpheus, an unpublished poem intended for The Earthly Paradise. The last
poem in the book, Goldilocks and Goldilocks, was written on May 20,
1891, for the purpose of adding to the bulk of the volume, which was
then being prepared. A few of the vellum covers were stained at Merton
red, yellow, indigo, and dark green, but the experiment was not
successful.
3. THE LOVE-LYRICS AND SONGS OF PROTEUS BY WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT WITH THE
LOVE-SONNETS OF PROTEUS BY THE SAME AUTHOR NOW REPRINTED IN THEIR FULL
TEXT WITH MANY SONNETS OMITTED FROM THE EARLIER EDITIONS. LONDON
MDCCCXCII. Small 4to. Golden type. In black and red. Border 1. 300 paper
copies at two guineas, none on vellum. Dated Jan. 26, issued Feb. 27,
1892. Sold by Reeves & Turner. Bound in stiff vellum.
This is the only book in which the initials are printed in red. This was
done by the author's wish.
4. THE NATURE OF GOTHIC A CHAPTER OF THE STONES OF VENICE. BY JOHN
RUSKIN. With a preface by William Morris. Small 4to. Golden type. Border
1. Diagrams in text. 500 paper copies at thirty shillings, none on
vellum. Dated in preface February 15, issued March 22, 1892. Published
by George Allen. Bound in stiff vellum.
This chapter of the Stones of Venice, which Ruskin always considered the
most important in the book, was first printed separately in 1854 as a
sixpenny pamphlet. Mr. Morris paid more than one tribute to it in Hopes
and Fears for Art. Of him Ruskin said in 1887, 'Morris is beaten gold.'
5. THE DEFENCE OF GUENEVERE, AND OTHER POEMS. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. Small
4to. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 2 and 1. 300 paper copies
at two guineas, ten on vellum at about twelve guineas. Dated April 2,
issued May 19, 1892. Sold by Reeves & Turner. Bound in limp vellum.
This book was set up from a copy of the edition published by Reeves &
Turner in 1889, the only alteration, except a few corrections, being in
the 11th line of Summer Dawn. It is divided into three parts, the poems
suggested by Malory's Morte d'Arthur, the poems inspired by Froissart's
Chronicles, and poems on various subjects. The two first sections have
borders, and the last has a half-border. The first sheet was printed on
February 17, 1892. It was the first book bound in limp vellum, and the
only one of which the title was inscribed by hand on the back.
6. A DREAM OF JOHN BALL AND A KING'S LESSON. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. Small
4to. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 3a, 4, and 2. With a woodcut
designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 300 paper copies at thirty shillings,
eleven on vellum at ten guineas. Dated May 13, issued Sept. 24, 1892.
Sold by Reeves & Turner. Bound in limp vellum.
This was set up with a few alterations from a copy of Reeves & Turner's
third edition, and the printing was begun on April 4, 1892. The
frontispiece was redrawn from that to the first edition, and engraved on
wood by W. H. Hooper, who engraved all Sir E. Burne-Jones' designs for
the Kelmscott Press, except those for The Wood beyond the World and The
Life and Death of Jason. The inscription below the figures, and the
narrow border, were designed by Mr. Morris, and engraved with the
picture on one block, which was afterwards used on a leaflet printed for
the Ancoats Brotherhood in February, 1894.
7. THE GOLDEN LEGEND. By Jacobus de Voragine. Translated by William
Caxton. Edited by F. S. Ellis. 3 vols. Large 4to. Golden type. Borders
5a, 5, 6a, and 7. Woodcut title and two woodcuts designed by Sir E.
Burne-Jones. 500 paper copies at five guineas, none on vellum. Dated
Sept. 12, issued Nov. 3, 1892. Published by Bernard Quaritch. Bound in
half-holland, with paper labels printed in the Troy type.
In July, 1890, when only a few letters of the Golden type had been cut,
Mr. Morris bought a copy of this book, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in
1527. He soon afterwards determined to print it, and on Sept. 11 entered
into a formal agreement with Mr. Quaritch for its publication. It was
only an unforeseen difficulty about the size of the first stock of paper
that led to The Golden Legend not being the first book put in hand. It
was set up from a transcript of Caxton's first edition, lent by the
Syndics of the Cambridge University Library for the purpose. A trial
page was got out in March, 1891, and 50 pages were in type by May 11,
the day on which the first sheet was printed. The first volume was
finished, with the exception of the illustrations and the preliminary
matter, in Oct., 1891. The two illustrations and the title (which was
the first woodcut title designed by Mr. Morris) were not engraved until
June and August, 1892, when the third volume was approaching completion.
About half a dozen impressions of the illustrations were pulled on
vellum. A slip asking owners of the book not to have it bound with
pressure, nor to have the edges cut instead of merely trimmed, was
inserted in each copy.
8. THE RECUYELL OF THE HISTORYES OF TROYE. By Raoul Lefevre. Translated
by William Caxton. Edited by H. Halliday Sparling. 2 vols. Large 4to.
Troy type, with table of chapters and glossary in Chaucer type. In black
and red. Borders 5a, 5, and 8. Woodcut title. 300 paper copies at nine
guineas, five on vellum at eighty pounds. Dated Oct. 14, issued Nov. 24,
1892. Published by Bernard Quaritch. Bound in limp vellum.
This book, begun in February, 1892, is the first book printed in Troy
type, and the first in which Chaucer type appears. It is a reprint of
the first book printed in English. It had long been a favourite with
William Morris, who designed a great quantity of initials and ornaments
for it, and wrote the following note for Mr. Quaritch's catalogue: 'As
to the matter of the book, it makes a thoroughly amusing story,
instinct with mediæval thought and manners. For though written at the
end of the Middle Ages and dealing with classical mythology, it has in
it no token of the coming Renaissance, but is merely mediæval. It is the
last issue of that story of Troy which through the whole of the Middle
Ages had such a hold on men's imaginations; the story built up from a
rumour of the Cyclic Poets, of the heroic City of Troy, defended by
Priam and his gallant sons, led by Hector the Preux Chevalier, and beset
by the violent and brutal Greeks, who were looked on as the necessary
machinery for bringing about the undeniable tragedy of the fall of the
city. Surely this is well worth reading, if only as a piece of undiluted
mediævalism.' 2000 copies of a 4to announcement, with specimen pages,
were printed at the Kelmscott Press in December, 1892, for distribution
by the publisher.
9. BIBLIA INNOCENTIUM: BEING THE STORY OF GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE BEFORE THE
COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST UPON EARTH, WRITTEN ANEW FOR CHILDREN BY
J. W. MACKAIL, SOMETIME FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD. 8vo. Border
2. 200 on paper at a guinea, none on vellum. Dated Oct. 22, issued Dec.
9, 1892. Sold by Reeves & Turner. Bound in stiff vellum.
This was the last book issued in stiff vellum except Hand and Soul, and
the last with untrimmed edges. It was the first book printed in 8vo.
10. THE HISTORY OF REYNARD THE FOXE BY WILLIAM CAXTON. Reprinted from
his edition of 1481. Edited by H. Halliday Sparling. Large 4to. Troy
type, with glossary in Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 5a and 7.
Woodcut title. 300 on paper at three guineas, 10 on vellum at fifteen
guineas. Dated Dec. 15, 1892, issued Jan. 25, 1893. Published by Bernard
Quaritch. Bound in limp vellum.
About this book, which was first announced as in the press in the list
dated July, 1892, William Morris wrote the following note for Mr.
Quaritch's catalogue: 'This translation of Caxton's is one of the very
best of his works as to style; and being translated from a kindred
tongue is delightful as mere language. In its rude joviality, and simple
and direct delineation of character, it is a thoroughly good
representative of the famous ancient Beast Epic.' The edges of this
book, and of all subsequent books, were trimmed in accordance with the
invariable practice of the early printers. Mr. Morris much preferred the
trimmed edges.
11. THE POEMS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, PRINTED AFTER THE ORIGINAL COPIES
OF VENUS AND ADONIS, 1593. THE RAPE OF LUCRECE, 1594. SONNETS, 1609. THE
LOVER'S COMPLAINT. Edited by F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black and
red. Borders 1 and 2. 500 paper copies at 25 shillings, 10 on vellum at
ten guineas. Dated Jan. 17, issued Feb. 13, 1893. Sold by Reeves &
Turner. Bound in limp vellum.
A trial page of this book was set up on Nov. 1, 1892. Though the number
was large, this has become one of the rarest books issued from the
Press.
12. NEWS FROM NOWHERE: OR, AN EPOCH OF REST, BEING SOME CHAPTERS FROM A
UTOPIAN ROMANCE, BY WILLIAM MORRIS. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red.
Borders 9a and 4, and a woodcut engraved by W. H. Hooper from a design
by C. M. Gere. 300 on paper at two guineas, 10 on vellum at ten guineas.
Dated Nov. 22, 1892, issued March 24, 1893. Sold by Reeves & Turner.
Bound in limp vellum.
The text of this book was printed before Shakespeare's Poems and
Sonnets, but it was kept back for the frontispiece, which is a picture
of the old manor-house in the village of Kelmscott by the upper Thames,
from which the Press took its name. It was set up from a copy of one of
Reeves & Turner's editions, and in reading it for the press the author
made a few slight corrections. It was the last except the Savonarola
(No. 31) in which he used the old paragraph mark ¶ which was discarded
in favour of the leaves, which had already been used in the two large
4to books printed in the Troy type.
13. THE ORDER OF CHIVALRY. Translated from the French by William Caxton
and reprinted from his edition of 1484. Edited by F. S. Ellis. And
L'ORDENE DE CHEVALERIE, WITH TRANSLATION BY WILLIAM MORRIS. Small 4to.
Chaucer type, in black and red. Borders 9a and 4, and a woodcut designed
by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. 225 on paper at thirty shillings, 10 on
vellum at ten guineas. The Order of Chivalry dated Nov. 10, 1892,
L'Ordene de Chevalerie dated February 24, 1893, issued April 12, 1893.
Sold by Reeves & Turner. Bound in limp vellum.
This was the last book printed in small 4to. The last section is in 8vo.
It was the first book printed in Chaucer type. The reprint from Caxton
was finished while News from Nowhere was in the press, and before
Shakespeare's Poems and Sonnets was begun. The French poem and its
translation were added as an after-thought, and have a separate
colophon. Some of the three-line initials, which were designed for The
Well at the World's End, are used in the French poem, and this is their
first appearance. The translation was begun on Dec. 3, 1892, and the
border round the frontispiece was designed on Feb. 13, 1893.
14. THE LIFE OF THOMAS WOLSEY, CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, WRITTEN BY
GEORGE CAVENDISH. Edited by F. S. Ellis from the author's autograph MS.
8vo. Golden type. Border 1. 250 on paper at two guineas, 6 on vellum at
ten guineas. Dated March 30, issued May 3, 1893. Sold by Reeves &
Turner. Bound in limp vellum.
15. THE HISTORY OF GODEFREY OF BOLOYNE AND OF THE CONQUEST OF
IHERUSALEM. Reprinted from Caxton's edition of 1481. Edited by H.
Halliday Sparling. Large 4to. Troy type, with list of chapter headings
and glossary in Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 5a and 5, and
woodcut title. 300 on paper at six guineas, 6 on vellum at 20 guineas.
Dated April 27, issued May 24, 1893. Published by William Morris at the
Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp vellum.
This was the fifth and last of the Caxton reprints, with many new
ornaments and initials, and a new printer's mark. It was first
announced as in the press in the list dated Dec., 1892. It was the first
book published and sold at the Kelmscott Press. An announcement and
order form, with two different specimen pages, was printed at the Press,
besides a special invoice. A few copies were bound in half holland, not
for sale.
16. UTOPIA, WRITTEN BY SIR THOMAS MORE. A reprint of the 2nd edition of
Ralph Robinson's translation, with a foreword by William Morris. Edited
by F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Chaucer type, with the reprinted title in Troy
type. In black and red. Borders 4 and 2. 300 on paper at thirty
shillings, 8 on vellum at ten guineas. Dated August 4, issued September
8, 1893. Sold by Reeves & Turner. Bound in limp vellum.
This book was first announced as in the press in the list dated May 20,
1893.
17. MAUD, A MONODRAMA. BY ALFRED LORD TENNYSON. 8vo. Golden type. In
black and red. Borders 10a and 10, and woodcut title. 500 on paper at
two guineas, 5 on vellum not for sale. Dated Aug. 11, issued Sept. 30,
1893. Published by Macmillan & Co. Bound in limp vellum.
The borders were specially designed for this book. They were both used
again in the Keats, and one of them appears in The Sundering Flood. It
is the first of the 8vo books with a woodcut title.
18. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE: A LECTURE FOR THE ARTS AND CRAFTS EXHIBITION
SOCIETY, BY WILLIAM MORRIS. 16mo. Golden type. In black and red. 1500 on
paper at two shillings and sixpence, 45 on vellum at ten and fifteen
shillings. Bound in half holland.
This lecture was set up at Hammersmith and printed at the New Gallery
during the Arts and Crafts Exhibition in October and November, 1893. The
first copies were ready on October 21, and the book was twice reprinted
before the Exhibition closed. It was the first book printed in 16mo. The
four-line initials used in it appear here for the first time. The vellum
copies were sold during the Exhibition at ten shillings, and the price
was subsequently raised to fifteen shillings.
19. SIDONIA THE SORCERESS, BY WILLIAM MEINHOLD, TRANSLATED BY FRANCESCA
SPERANZA LADY WILDE. Large 4to. Golden type. In black and red. Border 8.
300 paper copies at four guineas, 10 on vellum at twenty guineas. Dated
Sept. 15, issued November 1, 1893. Published by William Morris. Bound in
limp vellum.
Before the publication of this book a large 4to announcement and order
form was issued, with a specimen page and an interesting description of
the book and its author, written and signed by William Morris. Some
copies were bound in half holland, not for sale.
20. BALLADS AND NARRATIVE POEMS BY DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. 8vo. Golden
type. In black and red. Borders 4a and 4, and woodcut title. 310 on
paper at two guineas, 6 on vellum at ten guineas. Dated Oct. 14, issued
in November, 1893. Published by Ellis & Elvey. Bound in limp vellum.
This book was announced as in preparation in the list of August 1, 1893.
21. THE TALE OF KING FLORUS AND THE FAIR JEHANE. Translated by William
Morris from the French of the 13th century. 16mo. Chaucer type. In black
and red. Borders 11a and 11, and woodcut title. 350 on paper at seven
shillings and sixpence, 15 on vellum at thirty shillings. Dated Dec. 16,
issued Dec. 28, 1893. Published by William Morris. Bound in half
holland.
This story, like the three other translations with which it is uniform,
was taken from a little volume called Nouvelles Françoises en prose du
XIIIe siècle. Paris, Jannet, 1856. They were first announced as in
preparation under the heading 'French Tales' in the list dated May 20,
1893. Eighty-five copies of King Florus were bought by J. and M. L.
Tregaskis, who had them bound in all parts of the world. These are now
in the Rylands Library at Manchester.
22. THE STORY OF THE GLITTERING PLAIN WHICH HAS BEEN ALSO CALLED THE
LAND OF LIVING MEN OR THE ACRE OF THE UNDYING. WRITTEN BY WILLIAM
MORRIS. Large 4to. Troy type, with list of chapters in Chaucer type. In
black and red. Borders 12a and 12, 23 designs by Walter Crane, engraved
by A. Leverett, and a woodcut title. 250 on paper at five guineas, 7 on
vellum at twenty pounds. Dated Jan. 13, issued Feb. 17, 1894. Published
by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
Neither the borders in this book nor six out of the seven frames round
the illustrations appear in any other book. The seventh is used round
the second picture in Love is Enough. A few copies were bound in half
holland.
23. OF THE FRIENDSHIP OF AMIS AND AMILE. Done out of the ancient French
by William Morris. 16mo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 11a and
11, and woodcut title. 500 on paper at seven shillings and sixpence, 15
on vellum at thirty shillings. Dated March 13, issued April 4, 1894.
Published by William Morris. Bound in half holland.
A poem entitled Amys and Amillion, founded on this story, was originally
to have appeared in the second volume of The Earthly Paradise, but, like
some other poems announced at the same time, it was not included in the
book.
20a. SONNETS AND LYRICAL POEMS BY DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. 8vo. Golden
type. In black and red. Borders 1a and 1, and woodcut title. 310 on
paper at two guineas, 6 on vellum at ten guineas. Dated Feb. 20, issued
April 21, 1894. Published by Ellis & Elvey. Bound in limp vellum.
This book is uniform with No. 20, to which it forms a sequel. Both
volumes were read for the press by Mr. W. M. Rossetti.
24. THE POEMS OF JOHN KEATS. Edited by F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In
black and red. Borders 10a and 10, and woodcut title. 300 on paper at
thirty shillings, 7 on vellum at nine guineas. Dated March 7, issued May
8, 1894. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
This is now (Jan., 1898) the most sought after of all the smaller
Kelmscott Press books. It was announced as in preparation in the lists
of May 27 and August 1, 1893, and as in the press in that of March 31,
1894, when the woodcut title still remained to be printed.
25. ATALANTA IN CALYDON: A TRAGEDY. BY ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE. Large
4to. Troy type, with argument and dramatis personæ in Chaucer type; the
dedication and quotation from Euripides in Greek type designed by Selwyn
Image. In black and red. Borders 5a and 5, and woodcut title. 250 on
paper at two guineas, 8 on vellum at twelve guineas. Dated May 4, issued
July 24, 1894. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
In the vellum copies of this book the colophon is not on the 82nd page
as in the paper copies, but on the following page.
26. THE TALE OF THE EMPEROR COUSTANS AND OF OVER SEA. Done out of
ancient French by William Morris. 16mo. Chaucer type. In black and red.
Borders 11a and 11, both twice, and two woodcut titles. 525 on paper at
seven shillings and sixpence, 20 on vellum at two guineas. Dated August
30, issued Sept. 26, 1894. Published by William Morris. Bound in half
holland.
The first of these stories, which was the source of The Man born to be
King, in The Earthly Paradise, was announced as in preparation in the
list of March 31, 1894.
27. THE WOOD BEYOND THE WORLD. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. 8vo. Chaucer type. In
black and red. Borders 13a and 13, and a frontispiece designed by Sir E.
Burne-Jones, and engraved on wood by W. Spielmeyer. 350 on paper at two
guineas, 8 on vellum at ten guineas. Dated May 30, issued Oct. 16, 1894.
Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
The borders in this book, as well as the ten half-borders, are here used
for the first time. It was first announced as in the press in the list
of March 31, 1894. Another edition was published by Lawrence & Bullen in
1895.
28. THE BOOK OF WISDOM AND LIES. A book of traditional stories from
Georgia in Asia. Translated by Oliver Wardrop from the original of
Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 4a
and 4, and woodcut title. 250 on paper at two guineas, none on vellum.
Finished Sept. 29, issued Oct. 29, 1894. Published by Bernard Quaritch.
Bound in limp vellum.
The arms of Georgia, consisting of the Holy Coat, appear in the woodcut
title of this book.
29. THE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. VOLUME I. Edited by F.
S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. Borders 1a and 1, and woodcut title. 250 on
paper at twenty-five shillings, 6 on vellum at eight guineas. Not dated,
issued Nov. 29, 1894. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum
without ties.
Red ink is not used in this volume, though it is used in the second
volume, and more sparingly in the third. Some of the half-borders
designed for The Wood beyond the World reappear before the longer poems.
The Shelley was first announced as in the press in the list of March 31,
1894.
30. PSALMI PENITENTIALES. An English rhymed version of the Seven
Penitential Psalms. Edited by F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black
and red. 300 on paper at seven shillings and sixpence, 12 on vellum at
three guineas. Dated Nov. 15, issued Dec. 10, 1894. Published by William
Morris. Bound in half holland.
These verses were taken from a manuscript Book of Hours written at
Gloucester in the first half of the fifteenth century, but the Rev.
Professor Skeat has pointed out that the scribe must have copied them
from an older manuscript, as they are in the Kentish dialect of about a
century earlier. The half-border on p. 34 appears for the first time in
this book.
31. EPISTOLA DE CONTEMPTU MUNDI DI FRATE HIERONYMO DA FERRARA DELLORDINE
DE FRATI PREDICATORI LA QUALE MANDA AD ELENA BUONACCORSI SUA MADRE, PER
CONSOLARLA DELLA MORTE DEL FRATELLO, SUO ZIO. Edited by Charles Fairfax
Murray from the original autograph letter. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black
and red. Border 1. Woodcut on title designed by C. F. Murray and
engraved by W. H. Hooper. 150 on paper, and 6 on vellum. Dated Nov. 30,
ready Dec. 12, 1894. Bound in half holland.
This little book was printed for Mr. C. Fairfax Murray, the owner of the
manuscript, and was not for sale in the ordinary way. The colophon is in
Italian, and the printer's mark is in red.
32. THE TALE OF BEOWULF. Done out of the Old English tongue by William
Morris and A. J. Wyatt. Large 4to. Troy type, with argument, side-notes,
list of persons and places, and glossary in Chaucer type. In black and
red. Borders 14a and 14, and woodcut title. 300 on paper at two guineas,
8 on vellum at ten pounds. Dated Jan. 10, issued Feb. 2, 1895. Published
by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
The borders in this book were only used once again, in the Jason. A Note
to the Reader printed on a slip in the Golden type was inserted in each
copy. Beowulf was first announced as in preparation in the list of May
20, 1893. The verse translation was begun by Mr. Morris, with the aid of
Mr. Wyatt's careful paraphrase of the text, on Feb. 21, 1893, and
finished on April 10, 1894, but the argument was not written by Mr.
Morris until Dec. 10, 1894.
33. SYR PERECYVELLE OF GALES. Overseen by F. S. Ellis, after the edition
edited by J. O. Halliwell from the Thornton MS. in the Library of
Lincoln Cathedral. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 13a and
13, and a woodcut designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 350 on paper at
fifteen shillings, 8 on vellum at four guineas. Dated Feb. 16, issued
May 2, 1895. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
This is the first of the series to which Sire Degrevaunt and Syr
Isumbrace belong. They were all reprinted from the Camden Society's
volume of 1844, which was a favourite with Mr. Morris from his Oxford
days. Syr Perecyvelle was first announced in the list of Dec. 1, 1894.
The shoulder-notes were added by Mr. Morris.
34. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JASON, A POEM. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. Large 4to.
Troy type, with a few words in Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders
14a and 14, and two woodcuts designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones and
engraved on wood by W. Spielmeyer. 200 on paper at five guineas, 6 on
vellum at twenty guineas. Dated May 25, issued July 5, 1895. Published
by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
This book, announced as in the press in the list of April 21, 1894,
proceeded slowly, as several other books, notably the Chaucer, were
being printed at the same time. The text, which had been corrected for
the second edition of 1868, and for the edition of 1882, was again
revised by the author. The line-fillings on the last page were cut on
metal for this book, and cast like type.
29a. THE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. VOLUME II. Edited by F.
S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. 250 on paper at
twenty-five shillings, 6 on vellum at eight guineas. Not dated, issued
March 25, 1895. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum
without ties.
35. CHILD CHRISTOPHER AND GOLDILIND THE FAIR. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. 2 vols.
16mo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 15a and 15, and woodcut
title. 600 on paper at fifteen shillings, 12 on vellum at four guineas.
Dated July 25, issued Sept. 25, 1895. Published by William Morris. Bound
in half holland, with labels printed in the Golden type.
The borders designed for this book were only used once again, in Hand
and Soul. The plot of the story was suggested by that of Havelok the
Dane, printed by the Early English Text Society.
29b. THE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. VOLUME III. Edited by
F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. 250 on paper at
twenty-five shillings, 6 on vellum at eight guineas. Dated August 21,
issued October 28, 1895. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp
vellum without ties.
36. HAND AND SOUL. BY DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. Reprinted from The Germ
for Messrs. Way & Williams, of Chicago. 16mo. Golden type. In black and
red. Borders 15a and 15, and woodcut title. 300 paper copies and 11
vellum copies for America. 225 paper copies for sale in England at ten
shillings, and 10 on vellum at thirty shillings. Dated Oct. 24, issued
Dec. 12, 1895. Bound in stiff vellum without ties.
This was the only 16mo book bound in vellum. The English and American
copies have a slightly different colophon. The shoulder-notes were added
by Mr. Morris.
37. POEMS CHOSEN OUT OF THE WORKS OF ROBERT HERRICK. Edited by F. S.
Ellis, 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 4a and 4, and woodcut
title. 250 on paper at thirty shillings, 8 on vellum at eight guineas.
Dated Nov. 21, 1895, issued Feb. 6, 1896. Published by William Morris.
Bound in limp vellum.
This book was first announced as in preparation in the list of Dec. 1,
1894, and as in the press in that of July 1, 1895.
38. POEMS CHOSEN OUT OF THE WORKS OF SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. Edited by
F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 13a and 13. 300
on paper at a guinea, 8 on vellum at five guineas. Dated Feb. 5, issued
April 12, 1896. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
This book contains thirteen poems. It was first announced as in
preparation in the list of Dec. 1, 1894, and as in the press in that of
Nov. 26, 1895. It is the last of the series to which Tennyson's Maud,
and the poems of Rossetti, Keats, Shelley, and Herrick belong.
39. THE WELL AT THE WORLD'S END. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. Large 4to. Double
columns. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 16a, 16, 17a, 17, 18a,
18, 19a and 19, and 4 woodcuts designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 350 on
paper at five guineas, 8 on vellum at twenty guineas. Dated March 2,
issued June 4, 1896. Sold by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
This book, delayed for various reasons, was longer on hand than any
other. It appears in no less than twelve lists, from that of Dec., 1892,
to that of Nov. 26, 1895, as 'in the press.' Trial pages, including one
in a single column, were ready as early as September, 1892, and the
printing began on December 16 of that year. The edition of The Well at
the World's End published by Longmans was then being printed from the
author's manuscript at the Chiswick Press, and the Kelmscott Press
edition was set up from the sheets of that edition, which, though not
issued until October, 1896, was finished in 1894. The eight borders and
the six different ornaments between the columns, appear here for the
first time, but are used again in The Water of the Wondrous Isles, with
the exception of two borders.
40. THE WORKS OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER. Edited by F. S. Ellis. Folio. Chaucer
type, with headings to the longer poems in Troy type. In black and red.
Borders 20a to 26, woodcut title, and 87 woodcut illustrations designed
by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 425 on paper at twenty pounds, 13 on vellum at
120 guineas. Dated May 8, issued June 26, 1893. Published by William
Morris. Bound in half holland.
The history of this book, which is by far the most important achievement
of the Kelmscott Press, is as follows. As far back as June 11, 1891, Mr.
Morris spoke of printing a Chaucer with a black-letter fount which he
hoped to design. Four months later, when most of the Troy type was
designed and cut, he expressed his intention to use it first on John
Ball, and then on a Chaucer and perhaps a Gesta Romanorum. By January 1,
1892, the Troy type was delivered, and early in that month two trial
pages, one from The Cook's Tale and one from Sir Thopas, the latter in
double columns, were got out. It then became evident that the type was
too large for a Chaucer, and Mr. Morris decided to have it re-cut in the
size known as pica. By the end of June he was thus in possession of the
type which in the list issued in December, 1892, he named the Chaucer
type. In July, 1892, another trial page, a passage from The Knight's
Tale in double columns of 58 lines, was got out, and found to be
satisfactory. The idea of the Chaucer as it now exists, with
illustrations by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, then took definite shape.
In a proof of the first list, dated April, 1892, there is an
announcement of the book as in preparation, in black-letter, large
quarto, but this was struck out, and does not appear in the list as
printed in May, nor yet in the July list. In that for Dec., 1892, it is
announced for the first time as to be in Chaucer type 'with about sixty
designs by E. Burne-Jones.' The next list, dated March 9, 1893, states
that it will be a folio and that it is in the press, by which was meant
that a few pages were in type. In the list dated Aug. 1, 1893, the
probable price is given as twenty pounds. The next four lists contain no
fresh information, but on Aug. 17, 1894, nine days after the first sheet
was printed, a notice was sent to the trade that there would be 325
copies at twenty pounds and about sixty woodcuts designed by Sir Edward
Burne-Jones. Three months later it was decided to increase the number of
illustrations to upwards of seventy, and to print another 100 copies of
the book. A circular letter was sent to subscribers on Nov. 14, stating
this and giving them an opportunity of cancelling their orders. Orders
were not withdrawn, the extra copies were immediately taken up, and the
list for Dec. 1, 1894, which is the first containing full particulars,
announces that all paper copies are sold.
Mr. Morris began designing his first folio border on Feb. 1, 1893, but
was dissatisfied with the design and did not finish it. Three days later
he began the vine border for the first page, and finished it in about a
week, together with the initial word 'Whan,' the two lines of heading,
and the frame for the first picture, and Mr. Hooper engraved the whole
of these on one block. The first picture was engraved at about the same
time. A specimen of the first page (differing slightly from the same
page as it appears in the book) was shown at the Arts and Crafts
Exhibition in October and November, 1893, and was issued to a few
leading booksellers, but it was not until August 8, 1894, that the first
sheet was printed at 14, Upper Mall. On Jan. 8, 1895, another press was
started at 21, Upper Mall, and from that time two presses were almost
exclusively at work on the Chaucer. By Sept. 10 the last page of The
Romaunt of the Rose was printed. In the middle of Feb., 1896, Mr.
Morris began designing the title. It was finished on the 27th of the
same month and engraved by Mr. Hooper in March. On May 8, a year and
nine months after the printing of the first sheet, the book was
completed. On June 2 the first two copies were delivered to Sir Edward
Burne-Jones and Mr. Morris. Mr. Morris's copy is now at Exeter College,
Oxford, with other books printed at the Kelmscott Press.
Besides the eighty-seven illustrations designed by Sir Edward
Burne-Jones, and engraved by W. H. Hooper, the Chaucer contains a
woodcut title, fourteen large borders, eighteen different frames round
the illustrations, and twenty-six large initial words designed for the
book by William Morris. Many of these were engraved by C. E. Keates, and
others by W. H. Hooper and W. Spielmeyer.
In Feb., 1896, a notice was issued respecting special bindings, of which
Mr. Morris intended to design four. Two of these were to have been
executed under Mr. Cobden-Sanderson's direction at the Doves Bindery,
and two by Messrs. J. & J. Leighton. But the only design that he was
able to complete was for a full white pigskin binding, which has now
been carried out at the Doves Bindery on forty-eight copies, including
two on vellum.
41. THE EARTHLY PARADISE. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. VOLUME I. PROLOGUE: THE
WANDERERS. MARCH: ATALANTA'S RACE. THE MAN BORN TO BE KING. Medium 4to.
Golden type. In black and red. Borders 27a, 27, 28a, and 28, and woodcut
title. 225 on paper at thirty shillings, 6 on vellum at seven guineas.
Dated May 7, issued July 24, 1896. Published by William Morris. Bound in
limp vellum.
This was the first book printed on the paper with the apple watermark.
The seven other volumes followed it at intervals of a few months. None
of the ten borders used in The Earthly Paradise appear in any other
book. The four different half-borders round the poems to the months are
also not used elsewhere. The first border was designed in June, 1895.
42. LAUDES BEATAE MARIAE VIRGINIS. Latin poems taken from a Psalter
written in England about A. D. 1220. Edited by S. C. Cockerell. Large
4to. Troy type. In black, red, and blue. 250 on paper at ten shillings,
10 on vellum at two guineas. Dated July 7, issued August 7, 1896.
Published by William Morris. Bound in half holland.
This was the first book printed at the Kelmscott Press in three colours.
The manuscript from which the poems were taken was one of the most
beautiful of the English books in Mr. Morris's possession, both as
regards writing and ornament. No author's name is given to the poems,
but after this book was issued the Rev. E. S. Dewick pointed out that
they had already been printed at Tegernsee in 1579, in a 16mo volume in
which they are ascribed to Stephen Langton. A note to this effect was
printed in the Chaucer type in Dec. 28, 1896, and distributed to the
subscribers.
41a. THE EARTHLY PARADISE. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. VOLUME II. APRIL: THE DOOM
OF KING ACRISIUS. THE PROUD KING. Medium 4to. Golden type. In black and
red. Borders 29a, 29, 28a, and 28. 225 on paper at thirty shillings, 6
on vellum at seven guineas. Dated June 24, issued Sept. 17, 1896.
Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
43. THE FLOURE AND THE LEAFE, AND THE BOKE OF CUPIDE, GOD OF LOVE, OR
THE CUCKOW AND THE NIGHTINGALE. Edited by F. S. Ellis. Medium 4to. Troy
type, with note and colophon in Chaucer type. In black and red. 300 on
paper at ten shillings, 10 on vellum at two guineas. Dated Aug. 21,
issued Nov. 2, 1896. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in half
holland.
Two of the initial words from the Chaucer are used in this book, one at
the beginning of each poem. These poems were formerly attributed to
Chaucer, but recent scholarship has proved that The Floure and the Leafe
is much later than Chaucer, and that The Cuckow and the Nightingale was
written by Sir Thomas Clanvowe about A. D. 1405-10.
44. THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER: CONTEYNING TWELVE ÆGLOGUES, PROPORTIONABLE
TO THE TWELVE MONETHES. By Edmund Spenser. Edited by F. S. Ellis.
Medium 4to. Golden type. In black and red. With twelve full-page
illustrations by A. J. Gaskin. 225 on paper at a guinea, 6 on vellum at
three guineas. Dated Oct. 14, issued Nov. 26, 1896. Published at the
Kelmscott Press. Bound in half holland.
The illustrations in this book were printed from process blocks by
Walker & Boutall. By an oversight the names of author, editor, and
artist were omitted from the colophon.
41b. THE EARTHLY PARADISE. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. VOLUME III. MAY: THE STORY
OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. THE WRITING ON THE IMAGE. JUNE: THE LOVE OF
ALCESTIS. THE LADY OF THE LAND. Medium 4to. Golden type. In black and
red. Borders 30a, 30, 27a, 27, 28a, 28, 29a, and 29. 225 on paper at
thirty shillings, 6 on vellum at seven guineas. Dated Aug. 24, issued
Dec. 5, 1896. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp vellum.
41c. THE EARTHLY PARADISE. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. VOLUME IV. JULY: THE SON
OF CROESUS. THE WATCHING OF THE FALCON. AUGUST: PYGMALION AND THE
IMAGE. OGIER THE DANE. Medium 4to. Golden type. In black and red.
Borders 31a, 31, 29a, 29, 28a, 28, 30a, and 30. Dated Nov. 25, 1896,
issued Jan. 22, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp
vellum.
41d. THE EARTHLY PARADISE. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. VOLUME V. SEPTEMBER: THE
DEATH OF PARIS. THE LAND EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON. OCTOBER:
THE STORY OF ACONTIUS AND CYDIPPE. THE MAN WHO NEVER LAUGHED AGAIN.
Medium 4to. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 29a, 29, 27a, 27,
28a, 28, 31a, and 31. Finished Dec. 24, 1896, issued Mar. 9, 1897.
Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp vellum.
41e. THE EARTHLY PARADISE. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. VOLUME VI. NOVEMBER: THE
STORY OF RHODOPE. THE LOVERS OF GUDRUN. Medium 4to. Golden type. In
black and red. Borders 27a, 27, 30a, and 30. Finished Feb. 18, issued
May 11, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp vellum.
41f. THE EARTHLY PARADISE. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. VOLUME VII. DECEMBER: THE
GOLDEN APPLES. THE FOSTERING OF ASLAUG. JANUARY: BELLEROPHON AT ARGOS.
THE RING GIVEN TO VENUS. Medium 4to. Golden type. In black and red.
Borders 29a, 29, 31a, 31, 30a, 30, 27a, and 27. Finished March 17,
issued July 29, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp
vellum.
45. THE WATER OF THE WONDROUS ISLES. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. Large 4to.
Chaucer type, in double columns, with a few lines in Troy type at the
end of each of the seven parts. In black and red. Borders 16a, 17a, 18a,
19, and 19a. 250 on paper at three guineas, 6 on vellum at twelve
guineas. Dated April 1, issued July 29, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott
Press. Bound in limp vellum.
Unlike The Well at the World's End, with which it is mainly uniform,
this book has red shoulder-notes and no illustrations. Mr. Morris began
the story in verse on Feb. 4, 1895. A few days later he began it afresh
in alternate prose and verse; but he was again dissatisfied, and finally
began it a third time in prose alone, as it now stands. It was first
announced as in the press in the list of June 1, 1896, at which date the
early chapters were in type, although they were not printed until about
a month later. The designs for the initial words 'Whilom' and 'Empty'
were begun by William Morris shortly before his death, and were finished
by R. Catterson-Smith. Another edition was published by Longmans on Oct.
1, 1897.
41g. THE EARTHLY PARADISE. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. VOLUME VIII. FEBRUARY:
BELLEROPHON IN LYCIA. THE HILL OF VENUS. EPILOGUE. L'ENVOI. Medium 4to.
Golden type. In black and red. Borders 28a, 28, 29a, and 29. Finished
June 10, issued Sept. 27, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound
in limp vellum.
The colophon of this final volume of The Earthly Paradise contains the
following note: 'The borders in this edition of The Earthly Paradise
were designed by William Morris, except those on page 4 of volumes ii.,
iii., and iv., afterwards repeated, which were designed to match the
opposite borders, under William Morris's direction, by R.
Catterson-Smith; who also finished the initial words 'Whilom' and
'Empty' for The Water of the Wondrous Isles. All the other letters,
borders, title-pages and ornaments used at the Kelmscott Press, except
the Greek type in Atalanta in Calydon, were designed by William Morris.'
46. TWO TRIAL PAGES OF THE PROJECTED EDITION OF LORD BERNERS'
TRANSLATION OF FROISSART'S CHRONICLES. Folio. Chaucer type, with heading
in Troy type. In black and red. Border 32, containing the shields of
France, the Empire, and England and a half-border containing those of
Reginald Lord Cobham, Sir John Chandos, and Sir Walter Manny. 160 on
vellum at a guinea, none on paper. Dated September, issued October 7,
1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Not bound.
It was the intention of Mr. Morris to make this edition of what was
since his college days almost his favourite book, a worthy companion to
the Chaucer. It was to have been in two volumes folio, with new cusped
initials and heraldic ornament throughout. Each volume was to have had a
large frontispiece designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones; the subject of the
first was to have been St. George, that of the second, Fame. A trial
page was set up in the Troy type soon after it came from the foundry, in
Jan., 1892. Early in 1893 trial pages were set up in the Chaucer type,
and in the list for March 9 of that year the book is erroneously stated
to be in the press. In the three following lists it is announced as in
preparation. In the list dated Dec. 1, 1893, and in the three next
lists, it is again announced as in the press, and the number to be
printed is given as 150. Meanwhile the printing of the Chaucer had been
begun, and as it was not feasible to carry on two folios at the same
time, the Froissart again comes under the heading 'in preparation' in
the lists from Dec. 1, 1894, to June 1, 1896. In the prospectus of the
Shepheardes Calender, dated Nov. 12, 1896, it is announced as abandoned.
At that time about thirty-four pages were in type, but no sheet had been
printed. Before the type was broken up, on Dec. 24, 1896, 32 copies of
sixteen of these pages were printed and given as a memento to personal
friends of the poet and printer whose death now made the completion of
the book impossible. This suggested the idea of printing two pages for
wider distribution. The half-border had been engraved in April, 1894, by
W. Spielmeyer, but the large border only existed as a drawing. It was
engraved with great skill and spirit by C. E. Keates, and the two pages
were printed by Stephen Mowlem, with the help of an apprentice, in a
manner worthy of the designs.
47. SIRE DEGREVAUNT. Edited by F. S. Ellis after the edition printed by
J. O. Halliwell. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 1a and 1,
and a woodcut designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. 350 on paper at
fifteen shillings, 8 on vellum at four guineas. Dated Mar. 14, 1896,
issued Nov. 12, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in half
holland.
This book, subjects from which were painted by Sir Edward Burne-Jones on
the walls of The Red House, Upton, Bexley Heath, many years ago, was
always a favourite with Mr. Morris. The frontispiece was not printed
until October, 1897, eighteen months after the text was finished.
48. SYR YSAMBRACE. Edited by F. S. Ellis after the edition printed by J.
O. Halliwell from the MS. in the Library of Lincoln Cathedral, with some
corrections. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 4a and 4, and
a woodcut designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. 350 on paper at twelve
shillings, 8 on vellum at four guineas. Dated July 14, issued Nov. 11,
1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in half holland.
This is the third and last of the reprints from the Camden Society's
volume of Thornton Romances. The text was all set up and partly printed
by June, 1896, at which time it was intended to include 'Sir Eglamour'
in the same volume.
49. SOME GERMAN WOODCUTS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Being thirty-five
reproductions from books that were in the library of the late William
Morris. Edited, with a list of the principal woodcut books in that
library, by S. C. Cockerell. Large 4to. Golden type. In red and black.
225 on paper at thirty shillings, 8 on vellum at five guineas. Dated
Dec. 15, 1897, issued January 6, 1898. Published at the Kelmscott Press.
Bound in half holland.
Of these thirty-five reproductions twenty-nine were all that were done
of a series chosen by Mr. Morris to illustrate a catalogue of his
library, and the other six were prepared by him for an article in the
4th number of Bibliographica, part of which is reprinted as an
introduction to the book. The process blocks (with one exception) were
made by Walker & Boutall, and are of the same size as the original cuts.
50. THE STORY OF SIGURD THE VOLSUNG AND THE FALL OF THE NIBLUNGS. BY
WILLIAM MORRIS. Small folio. Chaucer type, with title and headings to
the four books in Troy type. In black and red. Borders 33a and 33, and
two illustrations designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. 160 on paper at
six guineas, 6 on vellum at twenty guineas. Dated January 19, issued
February 25, 1898. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp
vellum.
The two borders used in this book were almost the last that Mr. Morris
designed. They were intended for an edition of The Hill of Venus, which
was to have been written in prose by him and illustrated by Sir E.
Burne-Jones. The foliage was suggested by the ornament in two Psalters
of the last half of the thirteenth century in the library at Kelmscott
House. The initial A at the beginning of the 3rd book was designed in
March, 1893, for the Froissart, and does not appear elsewhere.
An edition of Sigurd the Volsung, which Mr. Morris justly considered his
masterpiece, was contemplated early in the history of the Kelmscott
Press. An announcement appears in a proof of the first list, dated
April, 1892, but it was excluded from the list as issued in May. It did
not reappear until the list of November 26, 1895, in which, the Chaucer
being near its completion, Sigurd comes under the heading 'in
preparation,' as a folio in Troy type, 'with about twenty-five
illustrations by Sir E. Burne-Jones.' In the list of June 1, 1896, it is
finally announced as 'in the press,' the number of illustrations is
increased to forty, and other particulars are given. Four borders had
then been designed for it, two of which were used on pages 470 and 471
of the Chaucer. The other two have not been used, though one of them has
been engraved. Two pages only were in type, thirty-two copies of which
were struck off on Jan. 11, 1897, and given to friends, with the sixteen
pages of Froissart mentioned above.
51. THE SUNDERING FLOOD WRITTEN BY WILLIAM MORRIS. Overseen for the
press by May Morris. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Border 10, and
a map. 300 on paper at two guineas. Dated Nov. 15, 1897, issued Feb. 25,
1898. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in half holland.
This was the last romance by William Morris. He began to write it on
Dec. 21, 1895, and dictated the final words on Sept. 8, 1896. The map
pasted into the cover was drawn by H. Cribb for Walker & Boutall, who
prepared the block. In the edition that Longmans are about to issue the
bands of robbers called in the Kelmscott edition Red and Black Skinners
appear correctly as Red and Black Skimmers. The name was probably
suggested by that of the pirates called 'escumours of the sea' on page
154 of Godefrey of Boloyne.
52. LOVE IS ENOUGH, OR THE FREEING OF PHARAMOND: A MORALITY. WRITTEN BY
WILLIAM MORRIS. Large 4to. Troy type, with stage directions in Chaucer
type. In black, red, and blue. Borders 6a and 7, and two illustrations
designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. 300 on paper at two guineas, 8 on
vellum at ten guineas. Dated Dec. 11, 1897, issued Mar. 24, 1898.
Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp vellum.
This was the second book printed in three colours at the Kelmscott
Press. As explained in the colophon, the final picture was not designed
for this edition of Love is Enough, but for the projected edition
referred to above, on page 5.
53. A NOTE BY WILLIAM MORRIS ON HIS AIMS IN FOUNDING THE KELMSCOTT
PRESS, TOGETHER WITH A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESS BY S. C.
COCKERELL, AND AN ANNOTATED LIST OF THE BOOKS PRINTED THEREAT. Octavo.
Golden type, with five pages in the Troy and Chaucer types. In black and
red. Borders 4a and 4, and a woodcut designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 525
on paper at ten shillings, 12 on vellum at two guineas. Dated March 1,
issued March 24, 1898. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in half
holland.
The frontispiece to this book was engraved by William Morris for the
projected edition of The Earthly Paradise described on page 5. This
block and the blocks for the three ornaments on page 7 are not included
among those mentioned on page 12 as having been sent to the British
Museum.
VARIOUS LISTS, LEAFLETS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS PRINTED AT THE KELMSCOTT
PRESS.
Eighteen lists of the books printed or in preparation at the
Kelmscott Press were issued to booksellers and subscribers. The dates of
these are May, July, and Dec., 1892; March 9, May 20, May 27, Aug. 1, and
Dec. 1, 1893; March 31, April 21, July 2, Oct. 1 (a leaflet), and Dec.
1, 1894; July 1, and Nov. 26, 1895; June 1, 1896; Feb. 16, and July 28,
1897. The three lists for 1892, and some copies of that for Mar. 9,
1893, were printed on Whatman paper, the last of the stock bought for
the first edition of The Roots of the Mountains (see p. 6). Besides
these, twenty-nine announcements, relating mainly to individual books,
were issued; and eight leaflets, containing extracts from the lists,
were printed for distribution by Messrs. Morris & Co.
The following items, as having a more permanent interest than most of
these announcements, merit a full description:
1. Two forms of invitation to the annual gatherings of The Hammersmith
Socialist Society on Jan. 30, 1892, and Feb. 11, 1893. Golden type.
2. A four-page leaflet for the Ancoats Brotherhood, with the
frontispiece from the Kelmscott Press edition of A Dream of John Ball on
the first page. March, 1894. Golden type. 2500 copies.
3. An address to Sir Lowthian Bell, Bart., from his employés, dated 30th
June, 1894. 8 pages. Golden type. 250 on paper and 2 on vellum.
4. A leaflet, with fly-leaf, headed An American Memorial to Keats,
together with a form of invitation to the unveiling of his bust in
Hampstead Parish Church on July 16, 1894. Golden type. 750 copies.
5. A slip giving the text of a memorial tablet to Dr. Thomas Sadler, for
distribution at the unveiling of it in Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Hampstead.
Nov., 1894. Golden type. 450 copies.
6. Scholarship certificates for the Technical Education Board of the
London County Council, printed in the oblong borders designed for the
pictures in Chaucer's Works. One of these borders was not used in the
book, and this is its only appearance. The first certificate was printed
in Nov., 1894, and was followed in Jan., 1896, by eleven certificates;
in Jan., 1897, by six certificates; and in Feb., 1898, by eleven
certificates, all differently worded. Golden type. The numbers varied
from 12 to 2500 copies.
7. Programmes of the Kelmscott Press annual wayzgoose for the years
1892-5. These were printed without supervision from Mr. Morris.
8. Specimen showing the three types used at the Press for insertion in
the first edition of Strange's Alphabets. March, 1895. 2000 ordinary
copies and 60 on large paper.
9. Card for Associates of the Deaconess Institution for the Diocese of
Rochester. One side of this card is printed in Chaucer type; on the
other there is a prayer in the Troy type enclosed in a small border
which was not used elsewhere. It was designed for the illustrations of a
projected edition of The House of the Wolfings. April, 1897. 250
copies.
A LIST OF THE BOOKS DESCRIBED ABOVE. page
1 The Glittering Plain (without illustrations) 15
2 Poems by the Way 15
3 Blunt's Love Lyrics and Songs of Proteus 16
4 Ruskin's Nature of Gothic 16
5 The Defence of Guenevere 16
6 A Dream of John Ball 17
7 The Golden Legend 17
8 The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye 18
9 Mackail's Biblia Innocentium 19
10 Reynard the Foxe 19
11 Shakespeare's Poems and Sonnets 20
12 News from Nowhere 20
13 The Order of Chivalry 20
14 Cavendish's Life of Wolsey 21
15 Godefrey of Boloyne 21
16 More's Utopia 22
17 Tennyson's Maud 22
18 Gothic Architecture, by William Morris 22
19 Sidonia the Sorceress 23
20 Rossetti's Ballads and Narrative Poems 23
20a " Sonnets and Lyrical Poems 24
21 King Florus 23
22 The Glittering Plain (illustrated) 23
23 Amis and Amile 24
24 The Poems of Keats 24
25 Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon 25
26 The Emperor Coustans 25
27 The Wood beyond the World 25
28 The Book of Wisdom and Lies 25
29 Shelley's Poems, Vol. I. 26
29a " " II. 28
29b " " III. 28
30 Psalmi Penitentiales 26
31 Savonarola, De contemptu Mundi 26
32 Beowulf 27
33 Syr Perecyvelle 27
34 The Life and Death of Jason 27
35 Child Christopher 28
36 Rossetti's Hand and Soul 28
37 Herrick's Poems 29
38 Coleridge's Poems 29
39 The Well at the World's End 29
40 Chaucer's Works 30
41 The Earthly Paradise, Vol. I. 32
41a " " " II. 33
41b " " " III. 34
41c " " " IV. 34
41d " " " V. 34
41e " " " VI. 34
41f " " " VII. 35
41g " " " VIII. 35
42 Laudes Beatæ Mariæ Virginis 33
43 The Floure and the Leafe 33
44 Spenser's Shepheardes Calender 33
45 The Water of the Wondrous Isles 35
46 Trial pages of Froissart 36
47 Sire Degrevaunt 37
48 Syr Ysambrace 37
49 Some German Woodcuts 38
50 Sigurd the Volsung 38
51 The Sundering Flood 39
52 Love is Enough 39
53 A Note by William Morris 40
LEAFLETS, &c.
Various lists and announcements relating to the
Kelmscott Press 40
1. Hammersmith Socialist Society, invitations 40
2. Ancoats Brotherhood leaflet 41
3. Address to Sir Lowthian Bell 41
4. An American Memorial to Keats 41
5. Memorial to Dr. Thomas Sadler 41
6. L. C. C. Scholarship Certificates 41
7. Wayzgoose Programmes 41
8. Specimen in Strange's Alphabets 41
9. Card for Associates of the Deaconess Institution
for the Diocese of Rochester 41
Other works announced in the lists as in preparation, but afterwards
abandoned, were The Tragedies, Histories, and Comedies of William
Shakespeare; Caxton's Vitas Patrum; The Poems of Theodore Watts-Dunton;
and A Catalogue of the Collection of Woodcut Books, Early Printed Books,
and Manuscripts at Kelmscott House. The text of the Shakespeare was to
have been prepared by Dr. Furnivall. The original intention, as first
set out in the list of May 20, 1893, was to print it in three vols.
folio. A trial page from Lady Macbeth, printed at this time, is in
existence. The same information is repeated until the list of July 2,
1895, in which the book is announced as to be a 'small 4to (special
size),' i. e., the size afterwards adopted for The Earthly Paradise. It
was not, however, begun, nor was the volume of Mr. Watts-Dunton's poems.
Of the Vitas Patrum, which was to have been uniform with The Golden
Legend, a prospectus and specimen page were issued in March, 1894, but
the number of subscribers did not justify its going beyond this stage.
Two trial pages of the Catalogue were set up; some of the material
prepared for it has now appeared in Some German Woodcuts of the
Fifteenth Century. In addition to these books, The Hill of Venus, as
stated on p. 38, was in preparation. Among works that Mr. Morris had
some thought of printing may also be mentioned The Bible, Gesta
Romanorum, Malory's Morte Darthur, The High History of the San Graal
(translated by Dr. Sebastian Evans), Piers Ploughman, Huon of Bordeaux,
Caxton's Jason, a Latin Psalter, The Prymer or Lay Folk's Prayer-Book,
Some Mediæval English Songs and Music, The Pilgrim's Progress, and a
Book of Romantic Ballads. He was engaged on the selection of the
Ballads, which he spoke of as the finest poems in our language, during
his last illness.
THE IDEAL BOOK: AN ADDRESS BY WILLIAM MORRIS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, MDCCCXCIII.
By the Ideal Book, I suppose we are to understand a book not limited by
commercial exigencies of price: we can do what we like with it,
according to what its nature, as a book, demands of art. But we may
conclude, I think, that its matter will limit us somewhat; a work on
differential calculus, a medical work, a dictionary, a collection of a
statesman's speeches, or a treatise on manures, such books, though they
might be handsomely and well printed, would scarcely receive ornament
with the same exuberance as a volume of lyrical poems, or a standard
classic, or such like. A work on Art, I think, bears less of ornament
than any other kind of book ("non bis in idem" is a good motto); again,
a book that must have illustrations, more or less utilitarian, should, I
think, have no actual ornament at all, because the ornament and the
illustration must almost certainly fight.
Still whatever the subject matter of the book may be, and however bare
it may be of decoration, it can still be a work of art, if the type be
good and attention be paid to its general arrangement. All here present,
I should suppose, will agree in thinking an opening of Schoeffer's
1462 Bible beautiful, even when it has neither been illuminated nor
rubricated; the same may be said of Schussler, or Jenson, or, in short,
of any of the good old printers; their books, without any further
ornament than they derived from the design and arrangement of the
letters, were definite works of art. In fact a book, printed or written,
has a tendency to be a beautiful object, and that we of this age should
generally produce ugly books, shows, I fear, something like malice
prepense--a determination to put our eyes in our pockets wherever we
can.
Well, I lay it down, first, that a book quite unornamented can look
actually and positively beautiful, and not merely un-ugly, if it be, so
to say, architecturally good, which, by the by, need not add much to its
price, since it costs no more to pick up pretty stamps than ugly ones,
and the taste and forethought that goes to the proper setting, position,
and so on, will soon grow into a habit, if cultivated, and will not
take up much of the master printer's time when taken with his other
necessary business.
Now, then, let us see what this architectural arrangement claims of us.
First, the pages must be clear and easy to read; which they can hardly
be unless, Secondly, the type is well designed; and Thirdly, whether the
margins be small or big, they must be in due proportion to the page of
the letter.
For clearness of reading the things necessary to be heeded are, first,
that the letters should be properly put on their bodies, and, I think,
especially that there should be small whites between them; it is
curious, but to me certain, that the irregularity of some early type,
notably the roman letter of the early printers of Rome, which is, of all
roman type, the rudest, does not tend toward illegibility: what does so
is the lateral compression of the letter, which necessarily involves the
over thinning out of its shape. Of course I do not mean to say that the
above-mentioned irregularity is other than a fault to be corrected. One
thing should never be done in ideal printing, the spacing out of
letters--that is, putting an extra white between them; except in such
hurried and unimportant work as newspaper printing, it is inexcusable.
This leads to the second matter on this head, the lateral spacing of
words (the whites between them); to make a beautiful page great
attention should be paid to this, which, I fear, is not often done. No
more white should be used between the words than just clearly cuts them
off from one another; if the whites are bigger than this it both tends
to illegibility and makes the page ugly. I remember once buying a
handsome fifteenth-century Venetian book, and I could not tell at first
why some of its pages were so worrying to read, and so commonplace and
vulgar to look at, for there was no fault to find with the type. But
presently it was accounted for by the spacing: for the said pages were
spaced like a modern book, i. e., the black and white nearly equal.
Next, if you want a legible book, the white should be clear and the
black black. When that excellent journal, the Westminster Gazette,
first came out, there was a discussion on the advantages of its green
paper, in which a good deal of nonsense was talked. My friend, Mr.
Jacobi, being a practical printer, set these wise men right, if they
noticed his letter, as I fear they did not, by pointing out that what
they had done was to lower the tone (not the moral tone) of the paper,
and that, therefore, in order to make it as legible as ordinary black
and white, they should make their black blacker--which of course they do
not do. You may depend upon it that a gray page is very trying to the
eyes.
As above said, legibility depends also much on the design of the letter:
and again I take up the cudgels against compressed type, and that
especially in roman letter: the full-sized lower-case letters "a," "b,"
"d," and "c," should be designed on something like a square to get good
results: otherwise one may fairly say that there is no room for the
design; furthermore, each letter should have its due characteristic
drawing, the thickening out for a "b," "e," "g," should not be of the
same kind as that for a "d"; a "u" should not merely be an "n" turned
upside down; the dot of the "i" should not be a circle drawn with
compasses; but a delicately drawn diamond, and so on. To be short, the
letters should be designed by an artist, and not an engineer. As to the
forms of letters in England (I mean Great Britain), there has been much
progress within the last forty years. The sweltering hideousness of the
Bodoni letter, the most illegible type that was ever cut, with its
preposterous thicks and thins, has been mostly relegated to works that
do not profess anything but the baldest utilitarianism (though why even
utilitarianism should use illegible types, I fail to see), and Caslon's
letter and the somewhat wiry, but in its way, elegant old-faced type cut
in our own days, has largely taken its place. It is rather unlucky,
however, that a somewhat low standard of excellence has been accepted
for the design of modern roman type at its best, the comparatively poor
and wiry letter of Plantin and the Elzevirs having served for the model,
rather than the generous and logical designs of the fifteenth-century
Venetian printers, at the head of whom stands Nicholas Jenson; when it
is so obvious that this is the best and clearest roman type yet struck,
it seems a pity that we should make our starting-point for a possible
new departure at any period worse than the best. If any of you doubt the
superiority of this type over that of the seventeenth century, the study
of a specimen enlarged about five times will convince him, I should
think. I must admit, however, that a commercial consideration comes in
here, to wit, that the Jenson letters take up more room than the
imitations of the seventeenth century; and that touches on another
commercial difficulty, to wit, that you cannot have a book either
handsome or clear to read which is printed in small characters. For my
part, except where books smaller than an ordinary octavo are wanted, I
would fight against anything smaller than pica; but at any rate small
pica seems to me the smallest type that should be used in the body of
any book. I might suggest to printers that if they want to get more in
they can reduce the size of the leads, or leave them out altogether. Of
course this is more desirable in some types than in others; Caslon's
letter, e. g., which has long ascenders and descenders, never needs
leading, except for special purposes.
I have hitherto had a fine and generous roman type in my mind, but after
all a certain amount of variety is desirable, and when you have gotten
your roman letter as good as the best that has been, I do not think you
will find much scope for development of it; I would therefore put in a
word for some form of gothic letter for use in our improved printed
book. This may startle some of you, but you must remember that except
for a very remarkable type used very seldom by Berthelette (I have only
seen two books in this type. Bartholomew, the Englishman, and the Gower,
of 1532), English black-letter, since the days of Wynkin de Worde, has
been always the letter which was introduced from Holland about that time
(I except again, of course, the modern imitations of Caxton). Now this,
though a handsome and stately letter, is not very easy reading; it is
too much compressed, too spiky, and so to say, too prepensely gothic.
But there are many types which are of a transitional character and of
all degrees of transition, from those which do little more than take in
just a little of the crisp floweriness of the gothic, like some of the
Mentelin or quasi-Mentelin ones (which, indeed, are models of beautiful
simplicity), or say like the letter of the Ulm Ptolemy, of which it is
difficult to say whether it is gothic or roman, to the splendid Mainz
type, of which, I suppose, the finest specimen is the Schoeffer Bible
of 1462, which is almost wholly gothic. This gives us a wide field for
variety, I think, so I make the suggestion to you, and leave this part
of the subject with two remarks: first, that a good deal of the
difficulty of reading gothic books is caused by the numerous
contractions in them, which were a survival of the practice of the
scribes; and in a lesser degree by the over-abundance of tied letters,
both of which drawbacks, I take it for granted, would be absent in
modern types founded on these semi-gothic letters. And, secondly, that
in my opinion the capitals are the strong side of roman and the
lower-case of gothic letter, which is but natural, since the roman was
originally an alphabet of capitals, and the lower case a gradual
deduction from them.
We now come to the position of the page of print on the paper, which is
a most important point, and one that till quite lately has been wholly
misunderstood by modern, and seldom done wrong by ancient printers, or
indeed by producers of books of any kind. On this head I must begin by
reminding you that we only occasionally see one page of a book at a
time; the two pages making an opening are really the unit of the book,
and this was thoroughly understood by the old book producers. I think
you will seldom find a book produced before the eighteenth century, and
which has not been cut down by that enemy of books (and of the human
race), the binder, in which this rule is not adhered to: that the binder
edge (that which is bound in) must be the smallest member of the
margins, the head margin must be larger than this, the fore larger
still, and the tail largest of all. I assert that, to the eye of any man
who knows what proportion is, this looks satisfactory, and that no other
does so look. But the modern printer, as a rule, dumps down the page in
what he calls the middle of the paper, which is often not even really
the middle, as he measures his page from the head line, if he has one,
though it is not really a part of the page, but a spray of type only
faintly staining the head of the paper. Now I go so far as to say that
any book in which the page is properly put on the paper is tolerable to
look at, however poor the type may be (always so long as there is no
"ornament" which may spoil the whole thing), whereas any book in which
the page is wrongly set on the paper is intolerable to look at, however
good the type and ornaments may be. I have got on my shelves now a
Jenson's Latin Pliny, which, in spite of its beautiful type and handsome
painted ornaments, I dare scarcely look at, because the binder
(adjectives fail me here) has chopped off two-thirds of the tail margin:
such stupidities are like a man with his coat buttoned up behind, or a
lady with her bonnet on hind-side foremost.
Before I finish I should like to say a word concerning large-paper
copies. I am clean against them, though I have sinned a good deal in
that way myself, but that was in the days of ignorance, and I petition
for pardon on that ground only. If you want to publish a handsome
edition of a book, as well as a cheap one, do so, but let them be two
books, and if you (or the public) cannot afford this, spend your
ingenuity and your money in making the cheap book as sightly as you can.
Your making a large-paper copy out of the small one lands you in a
dilemma even if you re-impose the pages for the large paper, which is
not often done, I think. If the margins are right for the smaller book
they must be wrong for the larger, and you have to offer the public the
worse book at the bigger price; if they are right for the large paper
they are wrong for the small, and thus spoil it, as we have seen above
that they must do; and that seems scarcely fair to the general public
(from the point of view of artistic morality) who might have had a book
that was sightly, though not high-priced.
As to the paper of our ideal book, we are at a great disadvantage
compared with past times. Up to the end of the fifteenth, or indeed, the
first quarter of the sixteenth centuries, no bad paper was made, and the
greater part was very good indeed. At present there is very little good
paper made and most of it is very bad. Our ideal book must, I think, be
printed on hand-made paper as good as it can be made; penury here will
make a poor book of it. Yet if machine-made paper must be used, it
should not profess fineness or luxury, but should show itself for what
it is: for my part I decidedly prefer the cheaper papers that are used
for the journals, so far as appearance is concerned, to the thick,
smooth, sham-fine papers on which respectable books are printed, and the
worst of these are those which imitate the structure of hand-made
papers.
But, granted your hand-made paper, there is something to be said about
the substance. A small book should not be printed on thick paper,
however good it may be. You want a book to turn over easily, and to lie
quiet while you are reading it, which is impossible, unless you keep
heavy paper for big books.
And, by the way, I wish to make a protest against the superstition that
only small books are comfortable to read; some small books are tolerably
comfortable, but the best of them are not so comfortable as a fairly big
folio, the size, say, of an uncut Polyphilus or somewhat bigger. The
fact is, a small book seldom does lie quiet, and you have to cramp your
hand by holding it or else put it on the table with a paraphernalia of
matters to keep it down, a tablespoon on one side, a knife on another,
and so on, which things always tumble off at a critical moment, and
fidget you out of the repose which is absolutely necessary to reading;
whereas, a big folio lies quiet and majestic on the table, waiting
kindly till you please to come to it, with its leaves flat and
peaceful, giving you no trouble of body, so that your mind is free to
enjoy the literature which its beauty enshrines.
So far then, I have been speaking of books whose only ornament is the
necessary and essential beauty which arises out of the fitness of a
piece of craftsmanship for the use which it is made for. But if we get
as far as that, no doubt from such craftsmanship definite ornament will
arise, and will be used, sometimes with wise forbearance, sometimes with
prodigality equally wise. Meantime, if we really feel impelled to
ornament our books, no doubt we ought to try what we can do; but in this
attempt we must remember one thing, that if we think the ornament is
ornamentally a part of the book merely because it is printed with it,
and bound up with it, we shall be much mistaken. The ornament must form
as much a part of the book as the type itself, or it will miss its mark,
and in order to succeed, and to be ornament, it must submit to certain
limitations, and become architectural; a mere black and white picture,
however interesting it may be as a picture, may be far from an ornament
in a book; while on the other hand a book ornamented with pictures that
are suitable for that, and that alone, may become a work of art second
to none, save a fine building duly decorated, or a fine piece of
literature.
These two latter things are, indeed, the one absolutely necessary gift
that we should claim of art. The picture-book is not, perhaps,
absolutely necessary to man's life, but it gives us such endless
pleasure, and is so intimately connected with the other absolutely
necessary art of imaginative literature that it must remain one of the
very worthiest things toward the production of which reasonable men
should strive.
AN ESSAY ON PRINTING, BY WILLIAM MORRIS AND EMERY WALKER, FROM ARTS AND
CRAFTS ESSAYS BY MEMBERS OF THE ARTS AND CRAFTS EXHIBITION SOCIETY.
Printing, in the only sense with which we are at present concerned,
differs from most if not from all the arts and crafts represented in the
exhibition in being comparatively modern. For although the Chinese took
impressions from wood blocks engraved in relief for centuries before the
wood-cutters of the Netherlands, by a similar process, produced the
block books, which were the immediate predecessors of the true printed
book, the invention of movable metal letters in the middle of the
fifteenth century may justly be considered as the invention of the art
of printing. And it is worth mention in passing that, as an example of
fine typography, the earliest book printed with movable types, the
Gutenberg, or "forty-two line Bible" of about 1455, has never been
surpassed.
Printing, then, for our purpose, may be considered as the art of making
books by means of movable types. Now, as all books not primarily
intended as picture-books consist principally of types composed to form
letterpress, it is of the first importance that the letter used should
be fine in form; especially as no more time is occupied, or cost
incurred, in casting, setting, or printing beautiful letters than in the
same operations with ugly ones. And it was a matter of course that in
the Middle Ages, when the craftsmen took care that beautiful form should
always be a part of their productions whatever they were, the forms of
printed letters should be beautiful, and that their arrangement on the
page should be reasonable and a help to the shapeliness of the letters
themselves. The Middle Ages brought caligraphy to perfection, and it was
natural therefore that the forms of printed letters should follow more
or less closely those of the written character, and they followed them
very closely. The first books were printed in black letter, i. e., the
letter which was a Gothic development of the ancient Roman character,
and which developed more completely and satisfactorily on the side of
the "lower-case" than the capital letters; the "lower-case" being in
fact invented in the early Middle Ages. The earliest book printed with
movable type, the aforesaid Gutenberg Bible, is printed in letters
which are an exact imitation of the more formal ecclesiastical writing
which obtained at that time; this has since been called "missal type,"
and was in fact the kind of letter used in the many splendid missals,
psalters, etc., produced by printing in the fifteenth century. But the
first Bible actually dated (which also was printed at Mainz by Peter
Schoeffer in the year 1462) imitates a much freer hand, simpler,
rounder, and less spiky, and therefore far pleasanter and easier to
read. On the whole the type of this book may be considered the
ne-plus-ultra of Gothic type, especially as regards the lower-case
letters; and type very similar was used during the next fifteen or
twenty years not only by Schoeffer, but by printers in Strasburg,
Basle, Paris, Lubeck, and other cities. But though on the whole, except
in Italy, Gothic letter was most often used, a very few years saw the
birth of Roman character not only in Italy, but in Germany and France.
In 1465 Sweynheim and Pannartz began printing in the monastery of
Subiaco near Rome, and used an exceedingly beautiful type, which is
indeed to look at a transition between Gothic and Roman, but which must
certainly have come from the study of the twelfth or even the eleventh
century MSS. They printed very few books in this type, three only; but
in their very first books in Rome, beginning with the year 1468, they
discarded this for a more completely Roman and far less beautiful
letter. But about the same year Mentelin at Strasburg began to print in
a type which is distinctly Roman; and the next year Gunther Zeiner at
Augsburg followed suit; while in 1470 at Paris Udalric Gering and his
associates turned out the first books printed in France, also in Roman
character. The Roman type of all these printers is similar in character,
and is very simple and legible, and unaffectedly designed for use; but
it is by no means without beauty. It must be said that it is in no way
like the transition type of Subiaco, and though more Roman than that,
yet scarcely more like the complete Roman type of the earliest printers
of Rome.
A further development of the Roman letter took place at Venice. John of
Spires and his brother Vindelin, followed by Nicholas Jenson, began to
print in that city, 1469, 1470; their type is on the lines of the German
and French rather than of the Roman printers. Of Jenson it must be said
that he carried the development of Roman type as far as it can go: his
letter is admirably clear and regular, but at least as beautiful as any
other Roman type. After his death in the "fourteen eighties," or at
least by 1490, printing in Venice had declined very much; and though the
famous family of Aldus restored its technical excellence, rejecting
battered letters, and paying great attention to the "press work" or
actual process of printing, yet their type is artistically on a much
lower level than Jenson's, and in fact they must be considered to have
ended the age of fine printing in Italy. Jenson, however, had many
contemporaries who used beautiful type, some of which--as, e. g., that
of Jacobus Rubeus or Jacques le Rouge--is scarcely distinguishable from
his. It was these great Venetian printers, together with their brethren
of Rome, Milan, Parma, and one or two other cities, who produced the
splendid editions of the Classics, which are one of the great glories of
the printer's art, and are worthy representatives of the eager
enthusiasm for the revived learning of that epoch. By far the greater
part of these Italian printers, it should be mentioned, were Germans or
Frenchmen, working under the influence of Italian opinion and aims. It
must be understood that through the whole of the fifteenth and the first
quarter of the sixteenth centuries the Roman letter was used side by
side with the Gothic. Even in Italy most of the theological and law books
were printed in Gothic letter, which was generally more formally Gothic
than the printing of the German workmen, many of whose types, indeed,
like that of the Subiaco works, are of a transitional character. This
was notably the case with the early works printed at Ulm, and in a
somewhat lesser degree at Augsburg. In fact Gunther Zeiner's first type
(afterwards used by Schussler) is remarkably like the type of the
before-mentioned Subiaco books.
In the Low Countries and Cologne, which were very fertile of printed
books, Gothic was the favourite. The characteristic Dutch type, as
represented by the excellent printer Gerard Leew, is very pronounced and
uncompromising Gothic. This type was introduced into England by Wynkyn
de Worde, Caxton's successor, and was used there with very little
variation all through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and
indeed into the eighteenth. Most of Caxton's own types are of an earlier
character, though they also much resemble Flemish or Cologne letter.
After the end of the fifteenth century the degradation of printing,
especially in Germany and Italy, went on apace; and by the end of the
sixteenth century there was no really beautiful printing done: the best,
mostly French or Low-Country, was neat and clear, but without any
distinction; the worst, which perhaps was the English, was a terrible
falling-off from the work of the earlier presses; and things got worse
and worse through the whole of the seventeenth century, so that in the
eighteenth printing was very miserably performed. In England about this
time, an attempt was made (notably by Caslon, who started business in
London as a type-founder in 1720) to improve the letter in form.
Caslon's type is clear and neat, and fairly well designed; he seems to
have taken the letter of the Elzevirs of the seventeenth century for his
model: type cast from his matrices is still in everyday use.
In spite, however, of his praiseworthy efforts, printing had still one
last degradation to undergo. The seventeenth century founts were bad
rather negatively than positively. But for the beauty of the earlier
work they might have seemed tolerable. It was reserved for the founders
of the later eighteenth century to produce letters which are positively
ugly, and which, it may be added, are dazzling and unpleasant to the eye
owing to the clumsy thickening and vulgar thinning of the lines: for the
seventeenth-century letters are at least pure and simple in line. The
Italian, Bodoni, and the Frenchman, Didot, were the leaders in this
luckless change, though our own Baskerville, who was at work some years
before them, went much on the same lines; but his letters, though
uninteresting and poor, are not nearly so gross and vulgar as those of
either the Italian or the Frenchman.
With this change the art of printing touched bottom, so far as fine
printing is concerned, though paper did not get to its worst till about
1840. The Chiswick press in 1844 revived Caslon's founts, printing for
Messrs. Longman the Diary of Lady Willoughby. This experiment was so far
successful that about 1850 Messrs. Miller and Richard of Edinburgh were
induced to cut punches for a series of "old style" letters. These and
similar founts, cast by the above firm and others, have now come into
general use and are obviously a great improvement on the ordinary
"modern style" in use in England, which is in fact the Bodoni type a
little reduced in ugliness. The design of the letters of this modern
"old style" leaves a good deal to be desired, and the whole effect is a
little too gray, owing to the thinness of the letters. It must be
remembered, however, that most modern printing is done by machinery on
soft paper, and not by the hand press, and these somewhat wiry letters
are suitable for the machine process, which would not do justice to
letters of more generous design.
It is discouraging to note that the improvement of the last fifty years
is almost wholly confined to Great Britain. Here and there a book is
printed in France or Germany with some pretension to good taste, but the
general revival of the old forms has made no way in those countries.
Italy is contentedly stagnant. America has produced a good many showy
books, the typography, paper, and illustrations of which are, however,
all wrong, oddity rather than rational beauty and meaning being
apparently the thing sought for both in the letters and the
illustrations.
To say a few words on the principles of design in typography: it is
obvious that legibility is the first thing to be aimed at in the forms
of the letters; this is best furthered by the avoidance of irrational
swellings and spiky projections, and by the using of careful purity of
line. Even the Caslon type when enlarged shows great shortcomings in
this respect: the ends of many of the letters such as the t and e are
hooked up in a vulgar and meaningless way, instead of ending in the
sharp and clear stroke of Jenson's letters; there is a grossness in the
upper finishings of letters like the c, the a, and so on, an ugly
pear-shaped swelling defacing the form of the letter: in short, it
happens to this craft, as to others, that the utilitarian practice,
though it professes to avoid ornament, still clings to a foolish,
because misunderstood conventionality, deduced from what was once
ornament, and is by no means useful; which title can only be claimed by
artistic practice, whether the art in it be conscious or unconscious.
In no characters is the contrast between the ugly and vulgar
illegibility of the modern type and the elegance and legibility of the
ancient more striking than in the Arabic numerals. In the old print each
figure has its definite individuality, and one cannot be mistaken for
the other; in reading the modern figures the eyes must be strained
before the reader can have any reasonable assurance that he has a 5, an
8, or a 3 before him, unless the press work is of the best; this is
awkward if you have to read Bradshaw's Guide in a hurry.
One of the differences between the fine type and the utilitarian must
probably be put down to a misapprehension of a commercial necessity:
this is the narrowing of the modern letters. Most of Jenson's letters
are designed within a square, the modern letters are narrowed by a third
or thereabout; but while this gain of space very much hampers the
possibility of beauty of design, it is not a real gain, for the modern
printer throws the gain away by putting inordinately wide spaces between
his lines, which, probably, the lateral compression of his letters
renders necessary. Commercialism again compels the use of type too small
in size to be comfortable reading: the size known as "Long primer" ought
to be the smallest size used in a book meant to be read. Here, again, if
the practice of "leading" were retrenched larger type could be used
without enhancing the price of a book.
One very important matter in "setting up" for fine printing is the
"spacing," that is, the lateral distance of words from one another. In
good printing the spaces between the words should be as near as
possible equal (it is impossible that they should be quite equal except
in lines of poetry); modern printers understand this, but it is only
practised in the very best establishments. But another point which they
should attend to they almost always disregard; this is the tendency to
the formation of ugly meandering white lines or "rivers" in the page, a
blemish which can be nearly, though not wholly, avoided by care and
forethought, the desirable thing being "the breaking of the line" as in
bonding masonry or brickwork, thus: [Illustration] The general solidity
of a page is much to be sought for: modern printers generally overdo the
"whites" in the spacing, a defect probably forced on them by the
characterless quality of the letters. For where these are boldly and
carefully designed, and each letter is thoroughly individual in form,
the words may be set much closer together, without loss of clearness. No
definite rules, however, except the avoidance of "rivers" and excess of
white, can be given for the spacing, which requires the constant
exercise of judgment and taste on the part of the printer.
The position of the page on the paper should be considered if the book
is to have a satisfactory look. Here once more the almost invariable
modern practice is in opposition to a natural sense of proportion. From
the time when books first took their present shape till the end of the
sixteenth century, or indeed later, the page so lay on the paper that
there was more space allowed to the bottom and fore margin than to the
top and back of the paper, thus:
[Illustration]
the unit of the book being looked on as the two pages forming an
opening. The modern printer, in the teeth of the evidence given by his
own eyes, considers the single page as the unit, and prints the page in
the middle of his paper--only nominally so, however, in many cases,
since when he uses a headline he counts that in, the result as measured
by the eye being that the lower margin is less than the top one, and
that the whole opening has an upside-down look vertically, and that
laterally the page looks as if it were being driven off the paper.
The paper on which the printing is to be done is a necessary part of our
subject: of this it may be said that though there is some good paper
made now, it is never used except for very expensive books, although it
would not materially increase the cost in all but the very cheapest. The
paper that is used for ordinary books is exceedingly bad even in this
country, but is beaten in the race for vileness by that made in America,
which is the worst conceivable. There seems to be no reason why ordinary
paper should not be better made, even allowing the necessity for a very
low price; but any improvement must be based on showing openly that the
cheap article is cheap, e. g., the cheap paper should not sacrifice
toughness and durability to a smooth and white surface, which should be
indications of a delicacy of material and manufacture which would of
necessity increase its cost. One fruitful source of badness in paper is
the habit that publishers have of eking out a thin volume by printing it
on thick paper almost of the substance of cardboard, a device which
deceives nobody, and makes a book very unpleasant to read. On the whole,
a small book should be printed on paper which is as thin as may be
without being transparent. The paper used for printing the small highly
ornamented French service-books about the beginning of the sixteenth
century is a model in this respect, being thin, tough, and opaque.
However, the fact must not be blinked that machine-made paper cannot in
the nature of things be made of so good a texture as that made by hand.
The ornamentation of printed books is too wide a subject to be dealt
with fully here; but one thing must be said on it. The essential point
to be remembered is that the ornament, whatever it is, whether picture
or pattern-work, should form part of the page, should be a part of the
whole scheme of the book. Simple as this proposition is, it is necessary
to be stated, because the modern practice is to disregard the relation
between the printing and the ornament altogether, so that if the two are
helpful to one another it is a mere matter of accident. The due relation
of letter to pictures and other ornament was thoroughly understood by
the old printers; so that even when the woodcuts are very rude indeed,
the proportions of the page still give pleasure by the sense of richness
that the cuts and letter together convey. When, as is most often the
case, there is actual beauty in the cuts, the books so ornamented are
amongst the most delightful works of art that have ever been produced.
Therefore, granted well-designed type, due spacing of the lines and
words, and proper position of the page on the paper, all books might be
at least comely and well-looking: and if to these good qualities were
added really beautiful ornament and pictures, printed books might once
again illustrate to the full the position of our Society that a work of
utility might be also a work of art, if we cared to make it so.
* * * * *
NOTE TO THE PRESENT EDITION: The following pages showing the Troy and
Chaucer types are printed from process blocks to insure fidelity to the
originals. The frontispiece and first page of text are also reproduced
in the same manner; page one, within the border, showing the Golden
type, the only other type used by William Morris.
[Sidenote: This is the Troy type]
The following passages are given to show the Troy & Chaucer types, and
four initials that were designed for the Froissart, but never used.
The land is a little land, Sirs, too much shut up within the narrow
seas, as it seems, to have much space for swelling into hugeness:
there are no great wastes overwhelming in their dreariness, no great
solitudes of forests, no terrible untrodden mountain-walls: all is
measured, mingled, varied, gliding easily one thing into another:
little rivers, little plains, swelling, speedily-changing uplands,
all beset with handsome orderly trees; little hills, little
mountains, netted over with the walls of sheep-walks: all is little;
yet not foolish and blank, but serious rather, and abundant of
meaning for such as choose to seek it: it is neither prison, nor
palace, but a decent home.
All which I neither praise nor blame, but say that so it is: some
people praise this homeliness overmuch, as if the land were the very
axle-tree of the world; so do not I, nor any unblinded by pride in
themselves and all that belongs to them: others there are who scorn
it and the tameness of it: not I any the more: though it would
indeed be hard if there were nothing else in the world, no wonders,
no terrors, no unspeakable beauties. Yet when we think what a small
part of the world's history, past, present, & to come, is this land
we live in, and how much smaller still in the history of the arts, &
yet how our forefathers clung to it, and with what care and
[Sidenote: This is the Chaucer type]
pains they adorned it, this unromantic, uneventful-looking land of
England, surely by this too our hearts may be touched and our hope
quickened.
For as was the land, such was the art of it while folk yet troubled
themselves about such things; it strove little to impress people
either by pomp or ingenuity: not unseldom it fell into commonplace,
rarely it rose into majesty; yet was it never oppressive, never a
slave's nightmare or an insolent boast: & at its best it had an
inventiveness, an individuality, that grander styles have never
overpassed: its best too, and that was in its very heart, was given
as freely to the yeoman's house, and the humble village church, as
to the lord's palace or the mighty cathedral: never coarse, though
often rude enough, sweet, natural & unaffected, an art of peasants
rather than of merchant princes or courtiers, it must be a hard
heart, I think, that does not love it: whether a man has been born
among it like ourselves, or has come wonderingly on its simplicity
from all the grandeur over-seas.
* * * * *
And Science, we have loved her well, and followed her diligently,
what will she do? I fear she is so much in the pay of the
counting-house, the counting-house and the drill-sergeant, that she
is too busy, and will for the present do nothing.
Yet there are matters which I should have thought easy for her, say
for example teaching Manchester how to consume its own smoke, or
Leeds how to get rid of its superfluous black dye without turning it
into the river, which would be as much worth her attention as the
production of the heaviest of heavy black silks, or the biggest of
useless guns. Anyhow, however it be done, unless people care about
carrying on their business without making the world hideous, how can
they care about art? I know it will cost much both of time and money
to better these things even a little; but I do not see how these
can be better spent than in making life cheerful & honourable for
others and for ourselves; and the gain of good life to the country
at large that would result from men seriously setting about the
bettering of the decency of our big towns would be priceless, even
if nothing specially good befell the arts in consequence: I do not
know that it would; but I should begin to think matters hopeful if
men turned their attention to such things, and I repeat that, unless
they do so, we can scarcely even begin with any hope our endeavours
for the bettering of the Arts. (From the lecture called The Lesser
Arts, in Hopes and Fears for Art, by William Morris, pages 22 and
33.)
[Illustration: Kelmscott
William Morris]
The "Note by William Morris on his Aims in Founding the Kelmscott
Press," the last book printed at the Kelmscott Press, contains a few
errors in the "Bibliography." These errors have been allowed to stand in
reprinting the "Note" here, in order that the reprint shall be a literal
one.
Mr. S. C. Cockerell, the former Secretary of the Kelmscott Press, has
kindly sent a list of these corrections, which appear below:
Page 19, line 21--"Golden type" should be inserted after "8vo."
Page 30, line 16--"June 26, 1893," should be "June 26, 1896."
Page 39, line 17--after "guineas" insert "ten on vellum at ten guineas."
Page 40, line 31--for "eight leaflets" read, "nine or ten leaflets."
Page 44, line 12--omit "Lady."
HERE ENDS THE ART AND CRAFT OF PRINTING; COLLECTED ESSAYS BY WILLIAM
MORRIS. OF THIS BOOK THERE HAVE BEEN PRINTED TWO HUNDRED AND TEN COPIES
BY CLARKE CONWELL AT THE ELSTON PRESS: FINISHED THIS THIRTIETH DAY OF
JANUARY MDCCCCII. SOLD BY CLARKE CONWELL AT THE ELSTON PRESS, PELHAM
ROAD, NEW ROCHELLE, NEW YORK.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
For "A Note on Founding the Kelmscott Press"
Page 4: "trangress" changed to "transgress": "Modern printers
systematically transgress against it"
Page 5: "artitcle" changed to "article": "the foregoing article was
written"
Page 5: "Pysche" changed to "Psyche": "Cupid and Psyche"
Page 7: "rubicated" changed to "rubricated": "left blank to be
rubricated by hand"
Page 12: "handmade" changed to "hand-made": "English hand-made paper"
Page 12: "Calendar" changed to "Calender": "Spenser's Shepheardes
Calender"
Page 26: "H. W. Hooper" changed to "W. H. Hooper" in item 31.
Page 32: "water-mark" changed to "watermark": "with the apple
watermark"
Page 40: The reference in item 52 to page 8 for "Love is Enough" was
corrected to page 5.
Page 40: The reference in item 53 to page 7 for "The Earthly Paradise"
was corrected to page 5. The reference to the ornaments on page 9
was corrected to page 7. The reference to page 17 was corrected to
page 12.
Page 40: The reference in "Various Lists" to page 10 was corrected
to page 6.
Page 43: "Milliam" changed to "William" in item 53
Page 44: The reference in "Various Lists" to page 57 was corrected
to page 38.
For "The Ideal Book"
Page 1: "determation" changed to "determination": "a determination to
put our eyes"
For "An Essay on Printing"
Page 12: "Maintz" changed to "Mainz": "printed at Mainz by"
Page 15: "Calson" changed to "Caslon": "Even the Caslon type when"
Page 16: "witout" changed to "without": "without enhancing the price"
Page 23: Period added after "over-seas": "all the grandeur over-seas."
General notes:
1. Paragraph breaks have been assumed in some places based on usage
elsewhere in the text.
2. Both "caligraphy" and "calligraphy" are used in different parts
of this book, and both forms were retained. This is also true for
"d'Arthur" and "Darthur", "head-line" and "headline", "Sweynheim"
and "Sweynheym", and "Zainer" and "Zeiner".
End of Project Gutenberg's The Art and Craft of Printing, by William Morris
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