The Golden Legend of Master William Caxton. 

The Kelmscott Press, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, 1892, 3 Vols.

One of 500 copies on paper (no vellum copies). The Golden Legend was intended to be the Press’s first work, but due to its length and production problems, Morris was forced to publish several shorter volumes before it was completed.

Vol. 1: 30.1 x 21.4 x 5.6 cm; pp. xiv + 470. Vol. 2: 30 x 21.5 x 4 cm; pp. [4] + 400. Vol. 3: 30 x 21.5 x 4.7 cm; pp. [4] + 424. Golden type on Batchelor hand-made paper with the Primrose watermark. Two woodcut illustrations (in vol. 1, by Edward Burne-Jones) and title, six full-page woodcut borders (in vol. 1), woodcut corner borders, and numerous woodcut initials. A large uncut copy, slightly later linen-backed original blue paper boards, paper title-labels.

William Caxton’s translation was one of the first books printed in English(1483). Medieval artists found the Golden Legend a storehouse of events and people to be illustrated. Depicting the lives of the saints in an array of factual and fictional stories, The Golden Legend was perhaps the most widely read book, after the Bible, during the late Middle Ages. It was compiled around 1260 by Jacobus de Voragine, a scholarly friar and later archbishop of Genoa, whose purpose was to captivate, encourage, and edify the faithful, while preserving a vast store of information pertaining to the legends and traditions of the church.

Peterson A7.