Cupid and Psyches; The excellent narration of their marriage + Translated into English by William Adlington out of the Latine Bookes of the Golden Asse by Apuleius 1566
London: The Nonesuch Press, 1923. Limited Edition. 8vo, 8 1/2 x 5 inches (216 x 128 mm); 72 pp. Monotype Garamond, with Caxton Black and drawn lettering for display on Vidalon handmade papers. Borders designed by Gefroy Tory, ca. 1524. and printed in red-brown on every page. Quarter binding in dark red stained parchment, with cream and red Italian star-patterned paper covered boards and matching endpapers, gilt title on spine. Minor split at title page but binding solid and internally clean and bright; boards have minor wear on edges and front. Bookseller stamp on f.e.p. verso. Copy 603 of 625, penciled in limitation page.
The text is taken from the fifth edition (1639) of William Adlington's translation of Apuleius' famous tale. This story is a rare instance of a fairy tale preserved in an ancient literary text (Luke and Monica Roman. Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology , 2010) and is one of the 'digressions' in the only full novel in Latin to have survived: The Golden Ass (Asinus Aureus).
The NONESUCH PRESS was a private press founded in 1922 in London by Francis Meynell, his second wife Vera Mendel, and their mutual friend David Garnett who was a bookseller in Soho's Gerrard Street, in the basement of which the press began. It was unusual among private presses as it used a small hand press to design books, but had them printed by commercial printers, in order to produce book designs with the quality of a fine-press but available to a wider audience at lower prices. Meynell also wanted to demonstrate that "mechanical means could be made to serve fine ends." He believed that the production of exquisitely designed and produced books was not the preserve of the private press predicated upon the example established by William Morris's Kelmscott Press, which emphasized the primacy of the hand press printed book.
Condition: Near fine.
Item number: 1079
Price: $140.00
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