The Chronicles of Fraunce, Inglande, and Other Places Adjoynynge
William Morris, 1834-96, Illuminator
Edward Burne-Jones, Illustrator
1897
43.2 x 28.7
Beckwith, Victorian Bibliomania catalogue no. 66
Collection: Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library
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Commentary by Alice H. R. H. Beckwith
Froissart's Chronicles intrigued William Morris when he was an undergraduate at Oxford. By 1857 he owned a copy of Henry Noel Humphreys's Illuminated Illustrations of Froissart (cat. 62) and Thomas Johnes's modern translation (Morris, Letters, 136). Morris took the present text from the 1523-25 translation by Lord John Berners done at the request of Henry VIII. He was undoubtedly attracted to Berners's version for its antique spelling, and perhaps because Berners was one of the originators of the Tudor prose style. These two specimen sheets, set in black and red Chaucer type, were printed in 160 copies on vellum to preserve the designs Morris made for his unfinished Froissart project (Bliss, 40). On these pages Froissart, styled Syr Johan Froissart, introduces himself and his intention to preserve in words the noble deeds of the knights of England, France, and adjoining lands, for the edification of future generations.
The design program Morris had in mind for his Froissart was the most heraldic of any book he published. There is of course a logic in this, for Froissart recorded the eyewitness accounts of knights who participated in medieval battles and jousts when armorial bearings were worn to identify the participants in such encounters. According to a printed note on the second recto of the Boston Public Library's copy of this specimen sheet, the three shields at the base of page 1 represent France, the Empire, and England. The remaining ornaments on the page constitute a stunning sample of the variety Morris was capable of in printed illuminated designs. The three different kinds of initial letters vary in size and in their interior and background decoration. Morris's border of white on black is densely covered with entwined flowers, leaves and vines of many varieties. The twenty-one-line initial T has a background which passes into the text and the margins as well, reflecting the continued and developing influence of hand-illumination in Morris's Kelmscott books.
References
Beckwith, Alice H. R. H. Victorian Bibliomania: The Illuminated Book in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Exhibition catalogue. Providence. Rhode Island: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1987.
Froissart, Jean. The Chronicles of Fraunce, Inglande, and Other Places Adjoynynge. Hammersmith: Trustees of William Morris at Kelmscott Press, 1897. Designer-Illuminator: William Morris.
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Last modified 25 December 2013