FINE GROLIER CLUB LIMITED FACSIMILE EDITION OF WYNKIN DE WORDE’S HISTORY OF HELYAS

(GROLIER CLUB) (WYNKIN DE WORDE) COPLAND, Robert, translator. The History of Helyas, Knight of the Swan. New York: The Grolier Club, 1901. Octavo, original full pictorial blind-tooled brown pigskin, marbled endpapers, uncut and partially unopened, brass clasps and catches, original corresponding pigskin-covered slipcase. $700.

Limited private press edition, one of only 328 copies, of this handsome facsimile production of Wynkin de Worde’s 1512 edition, bound in full, elaborately pictorial blind-tooled pigskin with brass fittings, in matching slipcase.

The tale of Helyas was a popular French medieval tale best known today (largely through Richard Wagner's opera) as that of Lohengrin, son of the Grail knight Sir Percival. William Caxton's chief assistant and sucessor, Wynkyn de Worde published over 800 works in his career as one of London's earliest and most influential printers, including a unique copy of The History of Helyas on parchment in 1512, faithfully reproduced in the present edition. The text was translated into English by de Worde's fellow printer and author Robert Copland. The Grolier Club, founded in New York in 1884 to promote bibliography and the graphic arts, produced this edition of 328 copies: three on vellum and the remainder (of which this is one) on Whatman paper. The handsome binding features one of de Worde's several printer's marks.

Light rubbing to slipcase. Book fine.