The Noble and Joyous Boke Entytled Le Morte D’Arthur.

MALORY, Thomas.

Item Number: 3772

Oxford: : Shakespeare Head Press, 1933.

Limited edition #369 of 370 copies. Bound in full red pigskin, the text printed in red and black on hand-made paper, with woodcuts from the 1498 edition, beautiful marbled end papers, page top edges gilt and fore- and bottom edges deckle-edged. Within the limited edition, this is a superior copy: only a few of this edition were bound in full pigskin, the remaining sets bound in half or three quarter leather. Laid in are the publisher’s 4-page precis, and 4 trial pages, both on the same hand-made paper with the red and black printing of the text, and each with a woodcut from the text. These volumes are from the library of Barry Gaines, Malory and Shakespeare scholar, and author of Sir Thomas Malory: An Anecdotal Bibliography of Editions, 1485-1985. In near fine condition, with only slight wear to the corners of the covers.

First published in 1485 by William Caxton, Le Morte d'Arthur is today perhaps the best-known work of Arthurian literature in English. Many modern Arthurian writers have used Malory as their principal source, including T. H. White in his popular The Once and Future King and Tennyson in The Idylls of the King.