Chaucer

The english Painter and Poet William Morris (1834-1896) redesigned for the Canterbury Tales edition, a font-section made by one of his favourite english Poet ,Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400). Morris´s edition was to become the pinnacle of his bookcraft and one of the finest illustrated work in book history. Edward Coley Burne-Iones,who became wood-graving master in 87, called it a ''Cathedrale in pocket size'' . The Chaucer is composed of two Volumes. Morris cut himself the frames and the illustrations. We can see in ''the Chaucer'', how precise the outline of the typographic design is. The inside border should always be the narrowest, the one above, a bit larger, the outside one still a bit larger and the one underneath should be the widest. A book designer should not make the mistake of only conceiving one page at a time. Morris always arranged two pages simultaneously, because left and right pages create an artisitic identity together. They where naturally printed with a hand press. The printing colours, a full black and a bright red, where self grinded from old recipies. The paper had to be handmade from ropes, without the usual cotton addition. The sheet of paper was provided from Batchelors papermill in Kent, near Ashford and modelled on an old paper sample from Bolognia (1473). its Watermark shows a scruffy man with foam around his mouth. 425 copys of the Chaucer where printed on paper, and 13 others on parchement, just like Guttembergs ''Special edition'' of the Bible. Morris would get to see his work. Three months before his death, in the summer of 1896, the first copy of the book came from the book binder, in light big leather with a gothic binding and a silver closure.