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Add MS 37832
- Record Id:
- 032-002054274
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002054274
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000046.0x0003c5
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 37832
- Title:
-
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, copied and illuminated by William Morris
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in the translation by Edward Fitzgerald, first published in 1859, handwritten and decorated by William Morris (b. 1834, d. 1896) in 1872. The figures depicted in the decorated borders were designed by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones (b. 1833, d. 1898), and painted by Charles Fairfax Murray (b. 1849, d. 1919).
Contents:
ff. 1r-12r: The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
f. 12v: Colophon
Decoration:
5 full borders with bar frames around the text block and dense illusionistic foliage in the margins, inhabited with small figures of women often playing musical instruments, in gold and watercolours (ff. 1r, 9v, 10r, 11v, 12r).
18 partial borders to the right of the text block and extending into the interlinear space, composed of illusionistic foliage, flowers and fruit, in watercolours (ff. 1v-9r, 10v, 11r).
2 full-length figures of women holding a banner inscribed 'TAMAM SHUD', surrounded by sprays of foliage and flowers, beneath the final line of the poem, in watercolours (f. 12r).
Heading ‘Omar Khayyám' written in gold in the upper margins (ff. 1v-9r, 10v, 11r).
The initial letter of each line and the numeration of pages and stanzas is written in gold throughout.
A note on ff. 13-14 of the manuscript, written by Georgiana Burne-Jones (b. 1840, d. 1920), explains that William Morris was responsible for the all the ornament, while the figures were painted by Charles Fairfax Murray from designs by Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. She further reports that Murray attributed the design of the figures to:
f. 1r, left border from top: EBJ, EBJ, ?EBJ; right border from top: WM, ?EBJ, WM; lower border: WM.
f. 9v, left border: WM, WM, WM; lower border: EBJ.
f. 10r, right border: ?WM, WM, WM; lower border: EBJ.
f. 11v, left and right borders: all EBJ; lower border: WM.
f. 12r, left and right borders: all EBJ; lower border: WM; central figures: WM.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002054274", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 37832: The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, copied and illuminated by William Morris" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002054274
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002054274
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_37832 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1872
- End Date:
- 1872
- Date Range:
- 1872
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment
Dimensions: 150 x 115 mm (written area: 100 x 70 mm)
Foliation: ff. 14 (ff. 13-14 are paper inserts, plus three unfoliated flyleaves at the beginning and at the end)
Script: Modern, written by William Morris.
Binding: Post-1600. Red leather covers, gold-tooled in a pattern of flowers and foliage. Spine inscribed in gold: ‘Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám’, with each word divided by a leaf design.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England
William Morris (b. 1834, d. 1896), designer, author, and visionary socialist: his colophon 'I finished my work on this book on the sixteenth of October 1972. W Morris.' (f. 12v).
Georgiana Burne-Jones (b. 1840, d. 1920), wife and biographer of Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones: contains her notes concerning the manuscript (ff. 12-13), which confirm that it was given to her by Morris, and state that the letter ‘G’ which features in the decorated borders of some pages stands for ‘Georgiana’ (ff. 1r, 9v, 10r, 11v, 12r).
Given to the British Museum by Georgiana Burne-Jones in 1909.
- Information About Copies:
- Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/
- Publications:
-
Aymer Vallance, William Morris: His Art, His Writings and His Public Life (London: George Bell and Sons, 1897), pp. 136-37.
J. W. Mackail, The Life of William Morris, 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1901), I, pp. 278-80.
Georgiana Burne-Jones, The Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones, 2 vols (London: Macmillan and Co., 1904), II, pp. 33-34.
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum 1906-1910 (London: British Museum, 1969), pp. 167-68.
Joseph Dunlap, 'Morris and the Book Arts before the Kelmscott Press', Victorian Poetry, 13 (1975), 141–57, pp. 147, 153.
Joseph Dunlap, 'William Morris: Calligrapher', in William Morris and the Art of the Book, ed. Paul Needham (New York: Pierpoint Morgan Library, 1976), pp. 48-70 (pp. 54-56, 58-60).
Michaela Braesel, 'William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam', Apollo, 159 (2004), 47-56.
Clive Wilmer, 'A Victorian Poem: Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám', in FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: Popularity and Neglect, ed. Adrian Poole and others (London: Anthem Press, 2011), pp. 45-54 (pp. 47, 53 n. 5).
Miles Tittle, 'Pen and Printing-Block: William Morris and the Resurrection of Medieval Paratextuality' (unpublished PhD thesis: University of Ottawa, 2012), pp. 131-38, 288.
William Morris: Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, written and illustrated by him, 1872 [Facsimile] (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1981).
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, illustrated by William Morris [Facsimile] (London: The Folio Society, 2018).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)