JOHN (Augustus). &
ASHENDENE PRESS
The Boke off the Revelacion off Sanct Jhon the Devine.
'The unity of effect is admirable & I most heartily congratulate you'
*** Condition, provenance***
The first Ashendene publication issued for commercial sale, the Revelacion was also the first to be set in double columns, the first to have elements of the text printed in red, and the first to be bound by Leighton. In many ways, it was a sign of things to come. For the initials, Hornby borrowed from Jacobi at the Chiswick Press, combining them with the Fell pica blackletter type he had used for his previous publication, Aucassin and Nicolete, creating the impression of a small incunable. Colin Frank describes copies bound both in white and green limp vellum, but implies the the former is the rarer of the two.
Emery Walker, whom Hornby had recently met through Sidney Cockerel, was effusive in his praise: ‘The boke of Revelacion came last night & I have had a pleasant hour this morning reading & admiring it. Of course I have looked at it critically as I can and I can only say that if our Bible will come out such an examination as well, how glad I shall be… What pleases me more than any detail is the book as a whole - the unity of effect is admirable & I most heartily congratulate you’.
