William Blake
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Production Description
Document Title: SONNET ON WILLIAM BLAKE - D.G. ROSSETTI - 1881
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of composition: 1880
Type of Manuscript: fair copy
Collation: [i-iii], [1-2]
Note: This bound volume was put together by T. J. Wise to house DGR's fair
copy manuscript. Wise added the book's elaborate title.
Provenance
Current Location: British Museum Library, Ashley Collection
Catalog Number: Ashley 3861
Physical Description
Paper: ruled white laid paper
Dimensions of Document: 22.3 x 17.6 cm
Other Physical Features: leaf torn from one of DGR's typical notebooks
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Copyright: By permission of the British Library
page images | transcript
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
T. J. Wise bound this booklet for DGR's fair copy of his Blake sonnet, followed by a printed copy and artistic title page with a portrait of Blake as a frontispiece. The booklet cover is red levant morrocco bound by Riviere with an embossed or stamped title. Paper is Whatman's hand-made, uncut in the original blue-grey paper boards, backed with white, with white paper back-label.
A letter to Watts-Dunton, dated 19 Dec. 1880, is laid in at the back of the book indicating that the sonnet was recently written by DGR and that he intended to publish it shortly.