“HIS PASSIONATE CRAFTSMANSHIP WAS THE SPARK WHICH IGNITED A 50-YEAR RENAISSANCE OF BOOKMAKING”: BEAUTIFUL KELMSCOTT PRESS EDITION OF THE GOLDEN LEGEND, 1892

(MORRIS, William) [CAXTON, William] [VORAGINE, Jacobus de]. The Golden Legend. [Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1892]. Three volumes. Tall quarto, early 20th-century full brown crushed levant morocco gilt, elaborately gilt-decorated covers and spines with leaf and vine devices, raised bands, broad dentelles, watered silk endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut.

Splendid limited first and only Kelmscott Press edition of the Golden Legend, one of the most important and widely read books of medieval Europe. One of only 500 sets produced, with woodcut title page and facing page with full woodcut page border—the first such title page that Morris designed—as well as two full-page woodcut illustrations designed by Burne-Jones, beautifully bound by Riviere and Son.

The Golden Legend was one of the earliest books to be printed in the West and only the Bible was more popular. These accounts of the miracles and martyrdoms of the saints were written during the 13th century, at the peak of medieval civilization, by Jacobus de Voragine, an Italian Dominican friar. The Kelmscott Press was founded in 1891 by William Morris, Pre-Raphaelite painter, designer, architect, and printer. “Morris sought to revive what he saw as the purity of the first century of printing, and to produce what he described as books which ‘would have a definite claim to beauty… and be easy to read” (Feather, 152). His “passionate craftsmanship was the spark which ignited a 50-year renaissance of bookmaking in England, on the Continent, and in the United States” (Art of the Printed Book, 36). The Golden Legend “was intended to be the earliest book produced at the Kelmscott Press, but because of its length and some problems with the first delivery of paper… Morris was forced to issue several shorter volumes before it was completed” (Mackail, ii, 270). Printed in Golden type (designed by Morris for this edition, and thusly named), with corner borders, shoulder titles and six- and ten-line woodcut initials. Peterson A7. Ransom, Kelmscott 7. Bookplates, including that of Boston attorney Charles Cobb Walker. Blindstamp of New England Conservatory of Music to half title and one text leaf of each volume. Old dealer description laid in (Philip C. Duschnes).

Fine condition. A beautifully bound and most desirable set of this splendid Kelmscott production.