The Pearl
San Francisco: Grabhorn-Hoyem, 1967.
Limited Edition. Hardcover.
Limited Edition of two hundred and twenty-five copies printed by Robert Grabhorn and Andrew Hoyem. Four illustrations printed in facsimile together with a commentary on the poem. Each line of the poem is printed in modern English translation (in black) followed by the original Middle English (in red).
The Pearl is an allegorical poem that survives in a unique manuscript from the end of the 14th century, the era of Chaucer. The manuscript, called Cotton Nero A.x because it formerly resided under the bust of Nero in the collection of the English bibliophile Sir Robert Cotton, contains three other poems. These include Purity (aka Cleanness), a collection of Biblical homilies on the corruption of the flesh; Patience, a retelling of the story of Jonah; and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Similarity may suggest common authorship of the four poems, but the manuscript was penned by a scribe and each of its four texts may have come originally from a different manuscript.
From the commentary: “Difficulties of its dialect and the very brilliance of its form have often proven forbidding to its translators. Despite this, it is generally regarded as the most exquisite long poem in Middle English, and the finest visionary poem in our language.”
In it a jeweler, suffering from the loss of his daughter, embarks on a spiritual journey in which he finds God. It is a lament, a quest for spiritual enlightenment, and a vision of paradise.
Item #9025079-1/2 x 11-3/8", quarter vellum with gilt spine titles, turquoise silk over boards, deckled edges, 125pp, printed in black and red, with four full-page facsimile illustrations in color.
Very fine.
Price: $300.00