Art of the Printed Book 1455-1955 : Masterpieces of Typography through Five Centuries from the Collections of the Pierpont Morgan Library

The Bodley Head, London, first UK edition, 1974. Two-tone cloth, gilt cover-device, 4to, 31 cm,. xiv, 192, [1] pp, 125 plates. Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Pierpont Morgan Library, Sept. 11-Dec. 2, 1973 With an essay by Joseph Blumenthal. From the blurb - "The Bodley Head, by arrangement with David R. Godine of Boston, is pleased to be associated with the publication of this splendid book. It is fully illustrated, meticulously produced and fills a long-standing gap in the history of books concerned with distinguished typography. It is written by an accomplished designer and printer and presents concisely the history of masterpieces of the art of the printed book. It includes descriptions of the lives of the great printers, Gutenberg, De Toumes, Baskerville, Aldus, and presents the historical backgrounds against which their work was done. Laymen and amateurs will read it with pleasure; professionals involved in bookmaking, including designers, printers, publishers, and librarians, will find it a useful and authoritative addition to the literature. This book belongs on the shelf of every library and of every bibliophile. Joseph Blumenthal is a practitioner whose Spiral Press set a long-acknowledged standard in the company of fine printers in the United States and in Europe. It is, in one sense, a personal selection, dependent on Mr. Blumenthal's exacting aesthetic standards and, in another, a testament to the discrimination and collections of that preeminent repository of typography - The Pierpont Morgan Library. The 112 books selected and reproduced, from the Gutenberg Bible to the twentieth-century works of Mardersteig, Rogers, Gill, Updike, and Meynell, are among the finest copies known and, as would be expected from the Morgan Library and Mr. Blumenthal, no effort has been spared in the production, design, or illustration of the Art of the Printed Book. Very Good in a dustwrapper with a small hole on the rear panel.