- -Commentary by Nicolas Barker, editor of The Book Collector and retired Head of Conservation, British Library
-Searchable, cross-linked transcription
-Magnify up to 400%
- -Digital images of every page of this rare book, cover to cover, in full color, presented as uncropped spreads
-Print and Thumbnails files for creating printed references
-Adobe Reader 4.0 with Search software
-Autostart PDF file on CD-ROM with all of Adobe Reader’s viewing, navigation, and search features
-Octavo Digital Guide and Help files
-
- Adobe Reader 5.0 or later (available free from Adobe)
- Windows PC with Pentium processor running Windows 95 or later
- Macintosh Power Mac running OS 9.2, or OS X 10.1 or later. Linux 2.2 kernel on X86 computer
- Color Monitor (15" or larger, capable of displaying millions of colors recommended)
- CD-ROM drive
The artistic genius of William Blake found distinctive
expression in both graphic works and visionary poetic writings. Among
Blake’s most masterful productions are books that combined these
forms, which he personally engraved and printed using a technique of
his own devising. These works were hand-colored by Blake as individual
copies were sold, often years or even decades after their original conception,
and consequently each surviving copy reflects a unique aspect of Blake’s
creativity.
The Book of Urizen was originally engraved in 1794 as The First Book of Urizen, for a projected series of works expressing Blake’s idiosyncratic cosmogony. Only a handful of copies are known to have been completed, and only one of these was executed later in the artist’s career (ca. 1818). That copy, reproduced with unequaled detail and accuracy in this Octavo Digital Edition, uses masterly techniques of coloring to produce in many instances what are virtually original paintings highlighted in liquid gold. Blake’s painstaking technique transforms the relatively flat picture surface of the original engravings into a dazzling epic in miniature that combines his bardic verse with otherworldly imagery to recount as never before the origins of human experience.
The original book imaged for this digital edition:
11 9/16 x 9 3/8 inches (294 x 238 mm)
The Book of Urizen was originally engraved in 1794 as The First Book of Urizen, for a projected series of works expressing Blake’s idiosyncratic cosmogony. Only a handful of copies are known to have been completed, and only one of these was executed later in the artist’s career (ca. 1818). That copy, reproduced with unequaled detail and accuracy in this Octavo Digital Edition, uses masterly techniques of coloring to produce in many instances what are virtually original paintings highlighted in liquid gold. Blake’s painstaking technique transforms the relatively flat picture surface of the original engravings into a dazzling epic in miniature that combines his bardic verse with otherworldly imagery to recount as never before the origins of human experience.
The original book imaged for this digital edition:
11 9/16 x 9 3/8 inches (294 x 238 mm)
Illuminated Imaginings
The Book of Urizen, originally entitled The First Book of Urizen, occupies a central place in William Blake’s creation of his “illuminated books,” both chronologically and in the thematic and structural development of the texts. They are not “illuminated” in the sense that medieval manuscripts are illuminated – that is, with pictures or decoration added to an existing text. In Blake’s books, text and decoration were conceived together and the printing process, making and printing the plates, did not separate them, although he might vary the colors from copy to copy, adding supplementary coloring as well. Like the books themselves, the technique for making them came to Blake by inspiration, through a visionary reverie.
The Book of Urizen, originally entitled The First Book of Urizen, occupies a central place in William Blake’s creation of his “illuminated books,” both chronologically and in the thematic and structural development of the texts. They are not “illuminated” in the sense that medieval manuscripts are illuminated – that is, with pictures or decoration added to an existing text. In Blake’s books, text and decoration were conceived together and the printing process, making and printing the plates, did not separate them, although he might vary the colors from copy to copy, adding supplementary coloring as well. Like the books themselves, the technique for making them came to Blake by inspiration, through a visionary reverie.
Contextual Conspectus
Blake was born in an era of a new sensibility, and was clearly aware of the new current of interest in the literature of the past. Brought up a Christian but also a Nonconformist, the Bible was and remained the central source of inspiration to him. Milton’s Paradise Lost was almost as important and pervasive. He turned away from the certainties of a material universe to a spiritual world, from the realism of Reynolds and the rationalism of Locke and Newton to the visionary figures of Michelangelo and the mysticism of Emanuel Swedenborg and Jakob Böhme. But it was the more immediate and practical impact of revolution, the War of American Independence, the Industrial Revolution that was blackening “England’s green and pleasant land,” and, immediately, the French Revolution, that formed the background and inspiration of Blake’s prophetic books. In the foreground were and number of significant figures: Thomas Paine was only the most notorious member of the group that included the Swiss artist Henry Fuseli, the radical bookseller Joseph Johnson, the rationalist philosopher William Godwin, and the “English Platonist” Thomas Taylor, all of them known to Blake.
Blake was born in an era of a new sensibility, and was clearly aware of the new current of interest in the literature of the past. Brought up a Christian but also a Nonconformist, the Bible was and remained the central source of inspiration to him. Milton’s Paradise Lost was almost as important and pervasive. He turned away from the certainties of a material universe to a spiritual world, from the realism of Reynolds and the rationalism of Locke and Newton to the visionary figures of Michelangelo and the mysticism of Emanuel Swedenborg and Jakob Böhme. But it was the more immediate and practical impact of revolution, the War of American Independence, the Industrial Revolution that was blackening “England’s green and pleasant land,” and, immediately, the French Revolution, that formed the background and inspiration of Blake’s prophetic books. In the foreground were and number of significant figures: Thomas Paine was only the most notorious member of the group that included the Swiss artist Henry Fuseli, the radical bookseller Joseph Johnson, the rationalist philosopher William Godwin, and the “English Platonist” Thomas Taylor, all of them known to Blake.
Prophetic Perfection
The Book of Urizen exists in eight copies, all of which differ from each other, and were produced over a long period. The earliest were printed in 1794-95; the copy reproduced here is printed on paper watermarked 1815, and is the latest known; it is also the most finished. Earlier copies are titled The First Book of Urizen, in expectation of sequels which were never realized; in this late copy Blake modified the title page design to omit the word “First.” This copy is printed in orange (others are in brown and green), but also elaborately hand-colored with brush and watercolor pigments, heightened with gold and silver. All the details, some obscure in the earlier copies, are here elaborated and made clear, as if Blake had come to some final determination about the order and function of both the text and the pictures of The Book of Urizen. As such, it has an heroic splendor, and forms a grand finale to the first part of Blake’s great prophetic vision.
The Book of Urizen exists in eight copies, all of which differ from each other, and were produced over a long period. The earliest were printed in 1794-95; the copy reproduced here is printed on paper watermarked 1815, and is the latest known; it is also the most finished. Earlier copies are titled The First Book of Urizen, in expectation of sequels which were never realized; in this late copy Blake modified the title page design to omit the word “First.” This copy is printed in orange (others are in brown and green), but also elaborately hand-colored with brush and watercolor pigments, heightened with gold and silver. All the details, some obscure in the earlier copies, are here elaborated and made clear, as if Blake had come to some final determination about the order and function of both the text and the pictures of The Book of Urizen. As such, it has an heroic splendor, and forms a grand finale to the first part of Blake’s great prophetic vision.
Copyright © 1998-2005 Octavo. All rights reserved.
Send us your comments and questions.
Send us your comments and questions.
