|
A title from The Old School Press Pilgrimage Views A commentary on Maundrell's A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem with new pulls from
the three extant copper engravings | |
|
| |
|
About the book While researching our earlier book Michael Burghers, Oxford engraver we were able to examine copperplate engravings by Burghers that are still kept in the archives at Oxford University Press. Several stood out: they were from Henry Maundrell's A journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, first printed by OUP in 1703. While chaplain to the 'factory' of the Levant Company in Aleppo, Maundrell joined fourteen others in a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. A journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter A.D. 1697 is his diary and travelogue. Unlike Robert Morison's Herbal, which was the subject of our recent Plates for a Herbal, it proved a considerable financial success and it was reprinted at the Press a further six times in the following half-century. This is the title page of my rather battered copy of the first edition (and yes, the engraving of the Sheldonian Theatre is also by Burghers):
Burghers was a major contributor of illustrations to Oxford University Press at the time, perhaps the finest engraver working on copperplate. Over the seven editions he engraved thirteen plates for A journey, of which just three survive. This is one of those survivors that will be in our new book (full size it is 200mm wide):
Following on from from the success of our earlier book on Burghers and of Plates for a Herbal (which included several of his large botanical engravings), a book about and around Maundrell's journey and Burghers's illustrations seemed inevitable, giving the opportunity to bring more of his engravings back to life with new pulls in a fine edition. Here are the three surviving plates, freshly cleaned by Master Printer Jim Nottingham ready for proofing:
Our text introduces Maundrell and his journey and examines each of the thirteen plates that Burghers cut as illustrations as we follow in Maundrell's footsteps. A fascinating aspect of our research has been establishing where Burghers got the drawings necessary as the basis for his engravings; in several cases it is clear that, following the habit of the time, he plagiarised the work of earlier artists in earlier books. Finally we record the details of the production of the several editions that OUP printed and the sale of the many copies produced. About the edition In keeping with our previous books relating to the early history of OUP we have hand-set the text in Monotype Van Dijck. The text has been printed in a landscape format on an antique laid hand-made paper which was part of the paper stock that we rescued from the defunct printing house of St Hugh's Charterhouse monastery, a paper that has the feel of the paper used in the original book. The engravings have been printed on the rolling press by Master Printer Jim Nottingham, who printed the engravings for both Plates for a Herbal and Michael Burghers, Oxford engraver. The paper for the engravings is 250gsm Rives BFK. The book will include digital prints of all of Burghers's engravings, either from online sources or reference pulls still present in the OUP Archives. Where we have traced earlier images which Burghers probably used as his models the book will also include digital copies of those. About 68pp, including the pulls from the three extant plates and a total of twenty-five tipped-in digital reproductions. The book will be bound in quarter cloth, with a Turkish-style marbled paper by Rachel Maiden on the boards, and held in a cloth-covered slipcase. Here is a snippet of the marbled paper:
The edition will be limited to a maximum of 70 copies. We welcome reservations now. Price £195. | |
