Bound in full red crushed morocco, with ‘The Gospels’ gilt with a circular gilt design on front board; in a cloth-covered slip-case with a version of a Greek key design printed in red.

No. 11 of 155 copies printed for sale in the USA, from an edition of 320 copies.

The 114 woodcuts are copies by Bruno Bramanti (d. 1957) and his pupil Italo Zetti, of the woodcut illustrations that first appeared in a small Italian book Epistole et evangelii et lectioni vulgari in lingua thoscana (Florence, 1495). Only two copies of this book are known, one (complete) in Rome, and the other, which belonged to the English collector C.W. Dyson Perrins (1864-1958), and is now in the Library of Congress, Washington. The original designs are by Givoanni de Bartolomeo, a Florentine pupil of Ghirlandaio, who produced many book illustrations. The title page design is by Reynolds Stone (1909-1979).

Provenance: David, Viscount Eccles (G, 1918-23), 1994

Location: Eccles Room