The Progress of Poesy: A Pindaric Ode, by Thomas Gray

London, 1916. Sangorski, Alberto. Small quarto. (11)ff., + 3ff. Signed at the colophon, after the certification statement, by Alberto Sangorski. A unique illuminated manuscript on vellum, in which Sangorski engages with and inserts himself into a genealogy of Neoclassicism. His devotion to the tradition of the medieval manuscript is at once classical and modern, and deeply entrenched in naturalistic aesthetics; the title page features a lush floral border surrounding a field of vines, and a similar border ornaments each page of text. Nine large illuminated initials are intertwined with the greenery, the language itself relying on and supporting the landscape of the page. Sangorski's four miniatures depict scenes of Classical Greek pastoral life, save for the title-page portrait of Gray. These images likewise seat Sangorski himself among the Romantics and Pre-Raphaelites, but also serve the greater purpose of establishing Gray's position as a sort of proto-Romantic. Although that title alone is too simple a reading of Gray's entire corpus, in the context of the specific poetry transcribed by Sangorsk,i the label bears out, the illustrations underscoring the Pindaric structure foundational to the text. The miniatures offer a further valence to the Romantic heritage Sangorski signals—he has styled them rather obviously after Lawrence Alma-Tadema, being equally devoted to texture, reflective surfaces, and tableaux of ancient Greece. Uncommon to Sangorski's series of manuscripts is the penultimate leaf, which bears a short biography of Gray.

Bound by Rivière & Son relievo-style, in full blue morocco with an inlaid red morocco and gilt-ruled border around a dense frame of gilt floral and leaf designs, grounded in pointillé and punctuated with dots in dark blue and petals in red. The frame on the upper cover surrounds an arabesque recessed panel containing molded a leatherwork design of a rose bush on which alight a bird, a butterfly, and bees with mother-of-pearl wings. The lower cover identically framed around an arabesque recess, this with molded leatherwork showing blue morning glories inhabited by a moth, a caterpillar, ladybugs, and more bees with mother-of-pearl wings. Spine in six compartments, two with titling in gilt and remaining four with borders of red and gilt around gilt panels. Maroon morocco doublures, blue silk flyleaves, edges gilt. Fine. Housed in a silk-lined box. A.e.g. Bookplate of Cornelius J. Hauck on front flyleaf. (Hauck 668, Lahey 63).