Item #108803 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. William Blake.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

1885. Edmonton: William Muir, 1885.

4to, 1p.preface by Muir, 27 leaves hand-colored, 1p.appendix, 2 leaves at the end in facsimile of Blake’s manuscript arrangement of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and the separate plate ‘A Divine Image’. Original printed wrappers, bound into contemporary half navy calf gilt with navy morocco gilt label on cover and navy cloth boards, with the bookplate of H.C.Plimmer. Very good with tissue guards as issued.

§ The superb Muir facsimile, limited to 50 copies, this copy numbered 2. Reproduces copy A - the Beckford-Harvard copy. See Bentley, BB, #249e.

“This book is Blake’s Principia, in which he announced a new concept of the universe.” (Damon, Blake Dictionary). “Through the voice of the “Devil,” Blake parodies and attacks the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, the cosmology and ethics of Milton’s Paradise Lost, and biblical history and morality as constructed by the “Angels” of the established church and state. Energy and passion are positively valorized; reason and temperance are characterized as restraints on spiritual insight and self-expression. The concluding three plates (25-27), “A Song of Liberty,” announce the coming revolution.” (The Blake Archive). Item #108803

Price: $5,750.00

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