The Glory of Print

Jacobus de Voragine. The golden legend. Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1892. Vol. 1 of 3 displayed.

William Morris’s Kelmscott Press is considered the founding press of the private press movement. It was also the first of the three great English private presses, followed chronologically by the Ashendene Press in 1894 and the Doves Press in 1900.

One of the earliest books produced at the Kelmscott Press was a reprint of the 1483 edition of The Golden Legend, a medieval collection of saints’ lives. The enormity of the work, coupled with technical problems, however, prevented it from being the first printed.

Numbering 500 copies, three volumes in length and over 1,300 words (all set by hand), The Golden Legend was the most ambitious of the press’s earlier works, revealing William Morris’s desire to print large, sumptuous volumes that his press was not yet ready to produce. The bookseller Bernard Quaritch commissioned the press to print The Golden Legend. Morris and his partner, Herbert Ellis, worked for free in exchange for twelve copies each. Morris, furthermore, was to have sole control over choice of paper, choice of type, size of the reprint and selection of the printer.

Jacobus de Voragine. The golden legend. Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1892. Vol. 1 of 3 displayed.
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Psalmi penitentiales. Hammersmith: Printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, 1894.

This small volume of Psalms is a somewhat atypical Kelmscott Press book. It is not dense with type and the decoration is kept to a minimum. One can, however, begin to see Morris’s growing courageousness in his use of red ink, even though it was employed timidly at first. The Latin text of each verse was printed in red and the English translation in black.

The 300 copies of the Psalms were being printed at the same time the Kelmscott Chaucer was in production.

Psalmi penitentiales. Hammersmith: Printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, 1894.
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