A new edition of William Morris’s Odes of Horace

William Morris may be known for his exquisite soft-furnishing and wallpaper designs, but between 1875 and 1896 he produced 18 illuminated (highly decorated) books, resurrecting a tradition that had faded with the invention of printing in the 16th century. Describing them as “painted books”, Morris was inspired by illumination while a student at Oxford, where he frequently visited the Bodleian Library. Indeed, this is where the original manuscript of Morris’s illustrated The Odes of Horace is housed. And now The Folio Society has faithfully reproduced the first facsimile manuscripts of this book (£395), in a limited edition of 980 that was made available to buy online this week.    

The edition, replete with floral patterns, portraits in miniature (some originally created by Edward Burne-Jones), foliated borders and vine tapestry, is presented with a translation by William Gladstone, not only a former prime minister but a brilliant classical scholar. He proclaimed: “Every one of the Odes, as a rule, has a spirit, genius and movement of its own.” Commentary examining Morris’s illuminations, his personal life and his role as a leading light in the Social League comes courtesy of Clive Wilmer, poet and Emeritis Fellow of Sidney Sussex college, Cambridge, who enthuses, “We seem to have been granted access to a treasure: vulnerable, threatened by the very transience that Horace’s Odes resist and lament, therefore all the more highly to be prized.”

Printed on Tatami paper in coloured inks with gold and silver foil by foil-printing specialist Castelli Bolis in Bergamo, Italy, the books were then taken to Yorkshire craft bindery Smith Settle to be bound in Indian smooth-grain goatskin – with five raised banks on the spine. Each detail, from the varied shades of gold to the green-black tone of the skin have been reproduced with meticulous care so as to match as closely as possible Morris’s original work. Each book is housed in a solander box with a green and aubergine interior and gold calligraphy.

“If I were asked to say what is at once the most important production of artand the thing to be most longed for,” said Morris, “I should answer, a beautiful house; and if I were further asked to name the production next in importance and the thing next to be longed for, I should answer, a beautiful book.”