William Blake Archive Update

From: Kari Kraus (KKraus27@AOL.COM)
Date: Wed Oct 31 2001 - 09:57:30 CST

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Message-Id: <200110311558.f9VFwxL29737@sitelicense.arizona.edu>
Date:         Wed, 31 Oct 2001 10:57:30 EST
From: Kari Kraus <mailto:KKraus27@AOL.COM>
Subject:      William Blake Archive Update
To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU

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An update on the William Blake Archive from its editors follows.

Kari Kraus University of Rochester

31 October 2001

The William Blake Archive <www.blakearchive.org> is pleased to announce the publication of new electronic editions of _The Marriage of Heaven and Hell_ copy G and _Visions of the Daughters of Albion_ copy P, both printed c. 1818. This is the first reproduction of _Marriage_ copy G and the first full color reproduction of _Visions_ copy P since the badly-degraded filmstrips produced by Micro Methods Ltd. in the 1970s.

_The Marriage of Heaven and Hell_ copy G is in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, and _Visions of the Daughters of Albion_ copy P is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. They join copies of _Marriage_ and
_Visions_ from other printings: _Marriage_ copies C (1790), H
(1790/1821), F (1794), D (1795), and I (1827), and _Visions_ copies C and J (1793), F (1794), and G (1795). Other copies of _Marriage_ and
_Visions_ are forthcoming: _Marriage_ copy K (plates 21-24) and copies L and M (plates 25-27), from the first printing of the plates in 1790, with plates 24 and 25 in first states; and _Visions_ copy O, printed with copy P.

The electronic editions have newly edited SGML-encoded texts and new images scanned and color-corrected from first-generation 4x5" transparencies; text and images are each fully searchable and supported by the Inote and ImageSizer applications described in our previous updates. With the Archive's recently added comparison feature, users can easily juxtapose multiple impressions of any plate across the different copies of an illuminated book.

With the publication of these two titles, the Archive now contains fully searchable and scalable electronic editions of 45 copies of 18 of Blake's 19 illuminated books in the context of full bibliographic information about each work, careful diplomatic transcriptions of all texts, detailed descriptions of all images, and extensive bibliographies. They also join our searchable SGML-encoded electronic edition of David V. Erdman's
_Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake_. With the forthcoming publication of _Jerusalem_ copy E, the Archive will contain at least one copy of each of Blake's works in illuminated printing and multiple copies of most.

_Marriage_ copy G, one of nine extant copies, is the only copy with a variant plate order (1-11, 15, 14, 12, 13, 16-27) that can be traced directly to Blake, and it is the first of his last two copies in which the cave and rock forms on plates 10, 11, 15, and 20 were printed. These forms were part of the original designs as executed on the plates but were wiped of ink in all earlier copies and thus did not print; they show up only in this copy and copy I.

The early histories of _Marriage_ copy G and _Visions_ copy P are not known, but they were bound together (with _The Book of Thel_ copy N) until 1890. They also share the same printing session and printing and coloring styles. Both are printed in red-orange ink on one side of RUSE & TURNERS/1815 paper and finished in watercolors and pen and ink. Each impression is numbered in the top right corner and bordered by one thin line drawn in red-orange ink a little over a centimeter around the image, setting off each page like a miniature painting. These extraordinarily beautiful copies were produced in the same session with other books in the Archive: _The Book of Thel_ copy O and _The Book of Urizen_ copy G. This late style, which Blake also used c. 1821-22 and 1825-27, can be seen in other books in the Archive: _America a Prophecy_ copy O and
_Europe a Prophecy_ copy K, published earlier this year, _Songs of Innocence and of Experience_ copies Z and AA, and _The Marriage of Heaven and Hell_ copy I.

The editors of the Archive recently photographed over 1250 works by Blake in the British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings, including all 537 water colors illustrating Edward Young's _Night Thoughts_ and hundreds of pencil sketches (nine newly discovered), drawings, and watercolors.=A0 Over the next few years, we will be adding this extensive collection of books, prints, and drawings to the Archive. Many of these works will be reproduced in color for the first time.

Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, and Joseph Viscomi, editors Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, technical editor The William Blake Archive

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<HTML>An update on the William=20= Blake Archive from its editors follows.
 
 Kari Kraus
 University of Rochester
 
 
 31 October 2001
 
 The William Blake Archive <www.blakearchive.org> is pleased to ann= ounce
 the publication of new electronic editions of _The Marriage of Heaven an= d
 Hell_ copy G and _Visions of the Daughters of Albion_ copy P, both print= ed
 c. 1818. This is the first reproduction of _Marriage_ copy G and the fir= st
 full color reproduction of _Visions_ copy P since the badly-degraded
 filmstrips produced by Micro Methods Ltd. in the 1970s.
 
 _The Marriage of Heaven and Hell_ copy G is in the Houghton Library,
 Harvard University, and _Visions of the Daughters of Albion_ copy P is i= n
 the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. They join copies of _Marriage_ and
 _Visions_ from other printings: _Marriage_ copies C (1790), H
 (1790/1821), F (1794), D (1795), and I (1827), and _Visions_ copies C
 and J (1793), F (1794), and G (1795). Other copies of _Marriage_ and
 _Visions_ are forthcoming: _Marriage_ copy K (plates 21-24) and copies L
 and M (plates 25-27), from the first printing of the plates in 1790,
 with plates 24 and 25 in first states; and _Visions_ copy O, printed wit= h
 copy P.
 
 The electronic editions have newly edited SGML-encoded texts and new
 images scanned and color-corrected from first-generation
 4x5" transparencies; text and images are each fully searchable and
 supported by the Inote and ImageSizer applications described in our
 previous updates. With the Archive's recently added comparison feature,
 users can easily juxtapose multiple impressions of any plate across the
 different copies of an illuminated book.
 
 With the publication of these two titles, the Archive now contains fully
 searchable and scalable electronic editions of 45 copies of 18 of Blake'= s
 19 illuminated books in the context of full bibliographic information
 about each work, careful diplomatic transcriptions of all texts, detaile= d
 descriptions of all images, and extensive bibliographies. They also join
 our searchable SGML-encoded electronic edition of David V. Erdman's
 _Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake_. With the forthcoming
 publication of _Jerusalem_ copy E, the Archive will contain at least one
 copy of each of Blake's works in illuminated printing and multiple copie= s
 of most.
 
 _Marriage_ copy G, one of nine extant copies, is the only copy with a
 variant plate order (1-11, 15, 14, 12, 13, 16-27) that can be traced
 directly to Blake, and it is the first of his last two copies in which t= he
 cave and rock forms on plates 10, 11, 15, and 20 were printed. These for= ms
 were part of the original designs as executed on the plates but were wip= ed
 of ink in all earlier copies and thus did not print; they show up only i= n
 this copy and copy I.
 
 The early histories of _Marriage_ copy G and _Visions_ copy P are not
 known, but they were bound together (with _The Book of Thel_ copy N) unt= il
 1890. They also share the same printing session and printing and colorin= g
 styles. Both are printed in red-orange ink on one side of RUSE &
 TURNERS/1815 paper and finished in watercolors and pen and ink. Each
 impression is numbered in the top right corner and bordered by one thin
 line drawn in red-orange ink a little over a centimeter around the image=
,
 setting off each page like a miniature painting. These extraordinarily
 beautiful copies were produced in the same session with other books in t= he
 Archive: _The Book of Thel_ copy O and _The Book of Urizen_ copy
 G. This late style, which Blake also used c. 1821-22 and 1825-27, can be
 seen in other books in the Archive: _America a Prophecy_ copy O and
 _Europe a Prophecy_ copy K, published earlier this year, _Songs of
 Innocence and of Experience_ copies Z and AA, and _The Marriage of Heave= n
 and Hell_ copy I.
 
 The editors of the Archive recently photographed over 1250 works by Blak= e
 in the British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings, including all
 537 water colors illustrating Edward Young's _Night Thoughts_ and
 hundreds of pencil sketches (nine newly discovered), drawings, and
 watercolors.=A0 Over the next few years, we will be adding this extensiv= e
 collection of books, prints, and drawings to the Archive. Many of
 these works will be reproduced in color for the first time.
 
 Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, and Joseph Viscomi, editors
 Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, technical editor
 The William Blake Archive
 
 </HTML>

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