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The Ideal Book: Essays and Lectures on the Arts of the Book / William Morris
Books
REF.BM.1126
xxxix, 134 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.
1982
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Book design, Illustrated books
This volume includes nearly all of William Morris’s lectures and essays on the arts of the book. Most of these discuss the illuminated book, early book illustrations, and woodcutting.
Contents: Some Thoughts on the Ornamented Manuscripts of the Middle Ages – Some Notes on the Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages – The Early Illustration of Printed Books – The Woodcuts of Gothic Books – On the Artistic Qualities of the Woodcut Books of Ulm and Augsburg in the Fifteenth Century – Printing – The Ideal Book – A Note by William Morris on His Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press.
Also includes two appendices (A Short History and Description of the Kelmscott Press, and Four Interviews with William Morris), as well as notes and an index. Includes 33 black and white illustrations.
William Morris was born in Walthamstow, England, in 1834. He was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and libertarian socialist. He is considered the founder of the British "Arts and Crafts" movement, and was committed to the renewal of the arts as well as the connection between the applied and fine arts as practiced by the medieval crafts guilds.