In Folio: Rare Volumes in the Stanford University Libraries

GEOFFREY CHAUCER, D. 1400.

The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Now Newly Imprinted.

Hammersmith: William Morris at Kelmscott Press, 1896.

British bibliophile, craftsman, designer, writer, and typographer, William Morris (1834-1896) was a major figure in the Arts & Crafts Movement, a loosely-linked group of artisans, craftsmen, architects, and writers who sought to elevate the status of the applied arts. Tiles, fabrics, tapestries, windows, interior decoration, and architecture all came under their scrutiny; the movement was a reaction against the Victorian tastes and manufactures of the day. Passionately involved with the book arts, Morris likewise looked to the past for inspiration, founding the Kelmscott Press and endeavoring to reproduce books in the style and appearance of books from the fifteenth century, the earliest days of printing. He cut printing types modeled after the great printer Nicolas Jenson of Venice (d. ca. 1480), had his books printed by hand, generally on fine paper, and often bound in vellum. During his career as publisher of fine books, he cut no fewer than three different sets of type: Golden, Troy, and Chaucer, and the layout of his books and the quality of materials used has earned him a reputation as a major figure of his day in the book arts. The Kelmscott Chaucer is Morris' best-known work; he had the Chaucer font cut specifically for this book. The woodcut illustrations were designed by Morris' celebrated friend Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), a student of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and one of the leading figures of the Pre-Raphaelite school. These woodcut illustrations epitomize what the Pre-Raphaelites saw as the style and high moral tone of Medieval design and illustration.

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