William Blake's Illuminated Books - Vol 1 : Jerusalem

The nature of William Blake's genius and of his art is most completely expressed in his illuminated books.

In order to give full and free expression to his vision, he invented a method of printing which enabled him to create works in which images combine to form pages uniquely rich in content and beautiful in form.

Blake's hope that the books would obtain wide circulation was unfilfilled: some exist only in unique copies, and none was printed in more than very small numbers. This is the first of six volumes comprising a collected edition of the illuminated books.

Fine copies have been photographed and the best modern technology has been applied with a view to ensuring that the originals are reproduced as faithfully as possible.

The edited texts are accompanied by introductions, notes and commentaries.