Books

1877. [London: John Pearson, 1877]. Large 4to, 100 plates, printed in black and white, with black framing lines. Original upper blue-gray wrapper, backstrip and lower wrapper supplied, text block untrimmed. § A wonderful facsimile of copy D (now at Harvard), limited to 100 copies per Bentley and Keynes but an old Quaritch catalogue stated 250 (an unlikely number, although a copy is recorded with the number "385" on the front wrapper). This copy numbered 5 on the upper cover. Bentley attributed the publication to Chatto but revised it to Pearson in his Blake Books Supplement. The Rinder copy reproduced by the Trianon Press is in a smaller format and this large quarto has a much more imposing and appealing presence and seems to be a better facsimile - certainly this copy is clearer and more striking than copy C. Bentley, BB, 76, and BBS, p. 88. “Blake’s final and longest epic in illuminated printing constitutes a recapitulation and summation of his multiple interests,…

Considered Blake's masterpiece, it is a prophetic book addressing themes of visionary spirituality and social change.