William Morris et les arts du livre

• Main Author: Antoine Capet
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre de Recherche et d'Etudes en Civilisation Britannique 2004-09-01
• Series: Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/3314

The last phase of William Morris’s life is associated with the Kelmscott Press, which can be seen as providing a synthesis between his life-long love of books and his equally durable passion for manual methods of production. His sense of beauty, derived from medieval architecture, dictated the choices made for the appearance of the books, which in turn dictated the technical choices made by the Press, characterised by extreme attention to detail. He was able to combine his own extensive knowledge of traditional book techniques with the skills of some of the most prominent artists and craftsmen of his time to produce volumes which were the nearest thing to his exacting definition of ‘the ideal book’.