[LEAF BOOK - KELMSCOTT PRESS]. PIRAGES, Phillip. Letters from the 15th Century. On the Origins of the Kelmscott Chaucer Typeface. A study, with specimen leaves, of the influence of the early German printers on William Morris' masterpiece. McMinnville, OR: Printed for the Author, 2019.

Large traycase portfolio comprising: 5 original leaves, including one from the Kelmscott Chaucer (1896); and a text volume, 8vo, in original Kelmscott imitation limp vellum with linen ties.

LIMITED EDITION, number VII of 47 copies of the text volume bound in flexible vellum, of a total edition of 165. Each of these 47 copies contains a Kelmscott Chaucer leaf with a woodcut scene designed by Edward Burne-Jones (this copy with the opening of The Romaunt of the Rose).

Called "the finest book since Gutenberg" (Franklin, The Private Presses, p. 192), the Kelmscott Chaucer was printed in Morris's own Chaucer and Troy types, which in turn were heavily influenced by 15th century typefaces as designed by various printers throughout Europe during the earliest years of the printing press. In addition to the Kelmscott Chaucer leaf, the present work also comprises leaves from de Lyra's Postilla super totam Bibliam as printed by Johann Mentelin (1472), Bernard of Clairvaux's Sermons as printed by Peter Schoeffer (1475), Concordio's Summa de Casibus Consciente as printed by Gunther Zainer (1475), and de Saxonia's Vita Christi as printed by Anton Koberger (1478), with each accompanied by eight-line rubricated initials or smaller.

[LEAF BOOK - KELMSCOTT PRESS]. PIRAGES, Phillip. Letters from the 15th Century. On the Origins of the Kelmscott Chaucer Typeface. A study, with specimen leaves, of the influence of the early German printers on William Morris' masterpiece. McMinnville, OR: Printed for the Author, 2019.