Books

1885. Edmonton: William Muir, 1885. 4to, 1p.preface by Muir, 27 leaves hand-colored, 1p.appendix, 2 leaves at the end in facsimile of Blake’s manuscript arrangement of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and the separate uncolored plate ‘A Divine Image’. Original printed wrappers, backstrip and edges strengthened with brown paper, covers soiled. Internally very good as issued. § The superb Muir facsimile, limited to 50 copies, this copy signed and numbered 47 by Muir . Reproduces copy A - the Beckford-Harvard copy. See Bentley, BB, #249e. “This book is Blake’s Principia, in which he announced a new concept of the universe.” (Damon, Blake Dictionary). “Through the voice of the “Devil,” Blake parodies and attacks the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, the cosmology and ethics of Milton’s Paradise Lost, and biblical history and morality as constructed by the “Angels” of the established church and state. Energy and passion are positively valorized;…

An influential work by Blake that presents a vision of Heaven and Hell that defies traditional theological perspectives.