The Pastorals of Virgil...

London: 1821. 2 vols., small 8vo, xii (-vii/viii), 12, xxiv (-i/iv), 214; [I], [215]-592 pp. With an engraved frontispiece to each volume, and 230 illustrations including 17 woodcuts and 6 engraved plates by Blake, and four other designs by Blake engraved by others. Original full rose sheep, backstrips lettered in gilt, slight wear to joints, vol. 1 invisibly repaired. A very fine set internally perfect. Enclosed in a modern protective box. § Presentation copy inscribed by Thornton to his daughter. A very fine copy of a scarce work in any condition as it was issued for use in schools; the impressions of the woodcuts in this copy are the richest I have ever seen. Blake contributed 17 woodcuts to this volume (as well as 10 other plates, of which he engraved six) which were not well received; nor were they well treated by the publisher who cut down the blocks and printed them poorly. Only a few proofs before they were trimmed are now extant. These blocks have remained amongst the most influential woodcuts in the history of British art and their influence can be seen from Calvert (see below) and Palmer all the way up to the present day. The blocks were saved by Linnell and were printed not long after Blake’s death as separate impressions (perhaps by Calvert, also see below), and again in 1977 as a set by Iain Bain (see below). Any impressions are now very hard to find. For a full discussion of this wonderful book, see Essick’s masterly monograph A Troubled Paradise... (San Francisco: John Windle, 1999). Bentley, BB, 504. Bindman 602-18. Easson and Essick I, X.