Folio Archives 481: Le Morte D’Arthur LE by Sir Thomas Malory 2003
Original topic subject: Folio Archives 461: Le Morte D’Arthur LE by Sir Thomas Malory 2003
Talk Folio Society Devotees
Join LibraryThing to post.
1wcarter
Le Morte D’Arthur - The Birth Life and Acts of King Arthur of His Noble Knights of the Round Table. Their Marvellous Enquests and Adventures, the Achieving of the San Greal, and in the end Le Morte Darthur with the Dolourous Death and Departing out of this World of them All. Facsimile of the Text as Written by Sir Thomas Malory and imprinted by William Caxton at Westminster the year MCCCLXXXV - LIMITED EDITION 2003
Sir Thomas Malory (b. 1416) was a criminal who was convicted of ambush, extortion and rape. He died in prison in 1471. On the other hand, he was the first person to collect and collate all the legends of King Arthur that had been circulated and expanded upon by minstrels and storytellers in England and France for over 900 years.
His manuscript lay almost forgotten until William Caxton took it up and printed the work in 1485, 14 years after Malory’s death. Caxton divided the text into 21 books and many chapters to make it more readable. Caxton’s first edition had no woodcut illustrations, but numerous reprints by Caxton’s successor and other printers gradually added more and more woodprints to the text until J.M. Dent took on the task and in 1892 commissioned the nineteen year old Aubrey Beardsley to create 240 different chapter headings, 20 full page illustrations, 43 borders, 25 initial letters and assorted headpieces and ornaments for a new limited edition of 1500 copies that was released in 1895. A second edition of 1500 copies with a few more drawings followed in 1909 and a final edition with even more embellishments appeared in 1927.
This facsimile is of the 1927 edition which includes many of the most famous tales of Arthur's reign, such as the quest for the Holy Grail and the tragic downfall of Camelot.
Malory’s work has been published by The Folio Society in numerous editions starting with Lancelot and Guinevere in 1953. In 1982 they published a three volume set of the Chronicles of King Arthur (The Tale of King Arthur, Sir Tristram de Lyonesse, The Morte d'Arthur) as both a standard and limited edition (reviewed here.).
In 1979 the noted British historian Richard Barber reinterpreted the Arthurian legends into modern English and published The Legends of King Arthur. This was then published by The Folio Society as a single volume in 2000 and as a three-volume set (reviewed here.) in a slightly reduced size a year later.
In 2007, The Folio Society published Richard Barber’s expanded version of one section, Legends of the Grail, as a stand-alone 512 page book.
This beautiful limited edition facsimile has 568 pages and its extended title is probably the longest of any Folio Society book. It has an illustrated monochrome frontispiece and 20 monochrome plates by Aubrey Beardsley as well as all the other decorations mentioned above. Printed by high quality photo-lithography.
It is bound in soft black Nigerian goatskin with gilt decorations on the cover and gilt spine-titling. There is a grey ribbon page marker and the endpapers are brown/grey laid paper. All text block edges are gilt.
It is housed in a black cloth Solander case (32.6x25.8x8.3cm.) with a gilt printed black morocco leather label on edge. A pocket on the inside of the case lid holds a 16 page leaflet by Anthony Edwards titled “Thomas Malory, the Morte D’arthur and Aubrey Beardsley”.
The limitation was 1000 copies and the original price from The Folio Society was £450.
Enclosed leaflet
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
Sir Thomas Malory (b. 1416) was a criminal who was convicted of ambush, extortion and rape. He died in prison in 1471. On the other hand, he was the first person to collect and collate all the legends of King Arthur that had been circulated and expanded upon by minstrels and storytellers in England and France for over 900 years.
His manuscript lay almost forgotten until William Caxton took it up and printed the work in 1485, 14 years after Malory’s death. Caxton divided the text into 21 books and many chapters to make it more readable. Caxton’s first edition had no woodcut illustrations, but numerous reprints by Caxton’s successor and other printers gradually added more and more woodprints to the text until J.M. Dent took on the task and in 1892 commissioned the nineteen year old Aubrey Beardsley to create 240 different chapter headings, 20 full page illustrations, 43 borders, 25 initial letters and assorted headpieces and ornaments for a new limited edition of 1500 copies that was released in 1895. A second edition of 1500 copies with a few more drawings followed in 1909 and a final edition with even more embellishments appeared in 1927.
This facsimile is of the 1927 edition which includes many of the most famous tales of Arthur's reign, such as the quest for the Holy Grail and the tragic downfall of Camelot.
Malory’s work has been published by The Folio Society in numerous editions starting with Lancelot and Guinevere in 1953. In 1982 they published a three volume set of the Chronicles of King Arthur (The Tale of King Arthur, Sir Tristram de Lyonesse, The Morte d'Arthur) as both a standard and limited edition (reviewed here.).
In 1979 the noted British historian Richard Barber reinterpreted the Arthurian legends into modern English and published The Legends of King Arthur. This was then published by The Folio Society as a single volume in 2000 and as a three-volume set (reviewed here.) in a slightly reduced size a year later.
In 2007, The Folio Society published Richard Barber’s expanded version of one section, Legends of the Grail, as a stand-alone 512 page book.
This beautiful limited edition facsimile has 568 pages and its extended title is probably the longest of any Folio Society book. It has an illustrated monochrome frontispiece and 20 monochrome plates by Aubrey Beardsley as well as all the other decorations mentioned above. Printed by high quality photo-lithography.
It is bound in soft black Nigerian goatskin with gilt decorations on the cover and gilt spine-titling. There is a grey ribbon page marker and the endpapers are brown/grey laid paper. All text block edges are gilt.
It is housed in a black cloth Solander case (32.6x25.8x8.3cm.) with a gilt printed black morocco leather label on edge. A pocket on the inside of the case lid holds a 16 page leaflet by Anthony Edwards titled “Thomas Malory, the Morte D’arthur and Aubrey Beardsley”.
The limitation was 1000 copies and the original price from The Folio Society was £450.
Enclosed leaflet
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
