Printed Pages from English Literature
Notes: A "loose leaf book", issued in a paper clamshell box with original examples of British printing, each laid into a paper folder with a brief printed description on the front. An introductory leaf of text by the editor is laid into the box as well. The contents of this set varies somewhat from copy to copy. This set includes a manuscript leaf and a two-color printed Breviary leaf that were not included with many copies.
The contents are leaves from:
1) A 15th century English-language manuscript translation of an Italian work by Vincentius Lirinensis;
2) Breviary for Salisbury Cathedral, printed by John Kyngston and Henry Sutton in 1555;
3) A Catholike and Ecclesiastical Exposition, 1575;
4) From the sermons of John Calvin, 1583;
5) Chaucer’s collected works, 1598;
6) King James Bible printed by Robert Barker, 1612 (one year after the first edition);
7) A Guide to Tongues by John Minsheu, 1617;
8) William Camden’s Annalles of Elizabeth, 1625;
9) The first edition of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, 1667;
10) First printed Iris translation in Irish of the Old Testament, 1685;
11) Thesaurus Brevium, 1687;
12) Lucan’s Pharsalia, 1718;
13) The Evening Post of London, 1721 (complete issue, no. 1778, December 20, 1720);
14) A New Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1745;
15) Pharsalia printed by Horace Walpole at his Strawberry Hill Press, 1760;
16) The Book of Common Prayer printed by John Baskerville, 1762
17) The first edition of Walter Scott's Marmion, 1808;
18) From the works of Sallust in Latin, 1863;
19) Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, 1895;
20) The Odyssey by Homer, 1909.
The printed label on the top of the clamshell box describes this entry in the Foliophiles series of leaf boxes as, "A portfolio of original leaves taken from rare and notable printed books. Apart from their picturesque qualities and historic interest, these specimens will prove of great value in tracing the evolution of the printed page and the handlettering from which it sprang. Though complete in itself, this portfolio is one of a series covering the world's literature from earliest times to the present day."
The clamshell box measures 10 by 13 inches, with the folders inside just slightly smaller.
Edition + Condition: A complete set of twenty folders with the enclosed leaves, plus the printed introduction, all laid into a box that would be near fine but for a short split at the outer joint of the spine. This is copy 12 of 200 assembled.
Publication: New York: Society of Foliophiles, 1925.
Item No: #362940
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