First edition. One of 200 copies printed on Flower paper. 8vo. Publisher's original stiff vellum with silk ties, yapp edges and titles in gilt to the spine. Page edges untrimmed, with numerous quires unopened. Printed in Golden type, the first chapter with woodcut foliate initial and border and each subsequent chapter opening with woodcut foliate initials by Hooper after Morris, woodcut press device after Morris on colophon leaf. A near fine copy, the binding square and tight with a just a very minor bump to the foot of the spine and a touch of dust-soiling to the vellum. The contents with a little toning to the preliminary pages and occasionally elsewhere are otherwise clean and bright throughout. An attractive copy. Mackail was a classical scholar, translator of the Aeneid, literary critic and poet. His links with the Kelmscott Press were strong: he married the painter Edward Burne-Jones' daughter Margaret in 1888 and was commissioned by the Morris family to write the first biography of William Morris in 1899, which is described by MacCarthy as a "sensitive and generous" portrayal (William Morris: A Life for our Time, London: 1994, p.x). Biblia Innocentium was one of the last Kelmscott Press publications to be issued in stiff vellum and the first to be printed in an octavo format. Burne-Jones was originally to have designed 250 wood-engravings for this edition, however only 25 were ever completed and none appeared until 1902 in The Beginning of the World: Twenty-Five Pictures by Edward Burne-Jones. (Peterson A9).
MACKAIL, John William (1859-1945). Biblia Innocentium. Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1892. 8° (207 x 140mm). Printed in Golden type, first chapter with woodcut foliate initial and border and each subsequent chapter opening with woodcut foliate initials by Hooper after Morris, woodcut press device after Morris on colophon leaf [Peterson 'Printer's marks' no. 1]. (A few leaves lightly spotted.) Original stiff vellum with brown silk ties by J.& J. Leighton, yapp edges, spine lettered in gilt, quires f to q unopened (2 ties missing, spine ends and board edges slightly bowed, short crack at head of spine). Provenance: Mrs Ward (loosely inserted ALS from Mackail presenting the book to Mrs Ward, 27 Young Street, Kensington Square, 13 Dec. 1892, 3 pages on bifolium, 8°). PRESENTATION COPY: 'I commend the book to your kindness. As a piece of beautiful printing it will be sure of its welcome'. Mackail was a classical scholar, translator of the Aeneid, literary critic and poet. His links with the Kelmscott Press were strong: he married the painter Edward Burne-Jones' daughter Margaret in 1888 and was commissioned by the Morris family to write the first biography of William Morris in 1899, which is described by MacCarthy as a 'sensitive and generous' portrayal (William Morris A Life for our Time, London: 1994, p.x). Biblia Innocentium was one of the last Kelmscott Press publications to be issued in stiff vellum and the first to be printed in an octavo format; it was limited to 200 on Flower paper. Burne-Jones was originally to have designed 250 wood-engravings for this edition, however only 25 were ever completed and none appeared until 1902 in The Beginning of the World: Twenty-Five Pictures by Edward Burne-Jones. The recipient of this copy may have been Mrs Humphry [Mary Augusta] Ward (1851-1920), the well-known Victorian author of Robert Elsmere. Peterson A9; Tomkinson 'Kelmscott' 9; Ransom 'Kelmscott' 9.