This book was set up from Nos. 81-84 of The English Illustrated Magazine, in which it first appeared; some of the chapter headings were rearranged, and a few small corrections were made in the text. A trial page, the first printed at the Kelmscott Press, was struck off on January 31, 1891, but the first sheet was not printed until about a month later.[7] 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 wash leather ties. All the other vellum bound books have silk ties, except Shelley’s Poems and Hand and Soul, which have no ties.

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 11th. 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, Hafburg 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 Meeting in Winter is a song from The Story of Orpheus an unpublished poem intended for the Earthly Paradise.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 Goldilooks, 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.[8]

This is the only book in which the initials are printed in red. This was done by the author’s wish.

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.”

This book was set up from a copy of the edition published by Reeves & Turner in 1880, the only alteration, except a few corrections, being in the eleventh line of Summer Dawn.[9] 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.

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’s 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,[10] 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.

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 September 11th 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 fifty pages were in type by May 11th, 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 October, 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.

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 purely 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.[11]

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.

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.

A trial page of this book was set up on November 1, 1892. Though the number was large, this has become one of the rarest books issued from the Press.[12]

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 book 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.

This was the last book printed in small 4to. The last section is in 8vo. It was the first book printed in the 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 afterthought, 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 December 3, 1892, and the border round the frontispiece was designed on February 13, 1893.

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 December, 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.

This book was first announced as in the press in the list dated May 20, 1893.

The borders were specially designed for this book. They were both used again in the Keats, and one of them appears in The Saundering Flood. It is the first of the 8vo books with a woodcut title.

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 21st 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.[14]

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.

This book was announced as in preparation in the list of August 1, 1893.

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. & M. L. Tregaskis, who had them bound in all parts of the world. These are now in the Rylands Library at Manchester.

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.

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.

This is now (January, 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.[16]

In the vellum copies of this book the colophon is not on the eighty-second page as in the paper copies, but on the following page.

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.

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.

The arms of Georgia, consisting of the Holy Coat, appear in the woodcut title of this book.[17]

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.[18]

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.

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.

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 February 21, 1893, and finished on April 10, 1894, but the argument was not written by Mr. Morris until December 10, 1894.

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 December 1, 1894. The shoulder-notes were added by Mr. Morris.

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 the book, and cast like 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.

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.

This book was first announced as in preparation in the list of December 1, 1894, and as in the press in that of July 1, 1895.

This book contains thirteen poems. It was first announced as in preparation in the list of December 1, 1894, and as in the press in that of November 26, 1895. It is the last of the series to which Tennyson’s Maud, and the poems of Rossetti, Keats, Shelley, and Herrick belong.

This book, delayed for various reasons, was longer on hand than any other. It appears in no less than twelve lists, from that of December, 1892, to that of November 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 16th, 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.

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 fifty-eight 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 December, 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 August 1, 1893, the probable price is given as twenty pounds. The next four lists contain no fresh information, but on August 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 woodcut designs 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 the subscribers on November 14th, 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 December 1, 1894, which is the first containing full particulars, announces that all paper copies are sold.[20]

Mr. Morris began designing his first folio border on February 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 January 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 September 10th, the last page of The Romaunt of the Rose was printed. In the middle of February, 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 8th, a year and nine months after the printing of the first sheet, the book was completed. On June 2nd, 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 around the illustrations, and twenty-six large initial words designed for the book by William Morris. Many of these were engraved by C. E. Keats, and others by W. H. Hooper and W. Spielmeyer.

In February, 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.[21]

This was the first book printed on the paper with the apple water-mark. 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.

This was the first book printed at the Kelmscott Press in three colours.[22] 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 December 28, 1896, and distributed to the subscribers.

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.

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.