#dolmen press

[garadinervi]

The Cuala Press 1903-1973, An Exhibition Arranged by the National Book League to Celebrate the Seventieth Anniversary of the Cuala Press, [London], 11-30 June 1973, Printed by Dolmen Press, Baile Átha Cliath / Dublin

↗ Lily & Elizabeth – The Yeats Sisters

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week

This morning we received a request from Ireland for information about our copy of The Voyage of Saint Brendan printed by the Dolmen Press in Ireland for the Humanities Press Inc. in the U. S. in a limited edition of 150 copies in 1976. The book contains a translation by the Irish classical scholar John J. O'Meara of the earliest Latin version of Brendan's legendary voyage, Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis from the 9th century CE. The images used here are reproductions of woodcuts from Sankt Brandans Seefahrt, the first printed version of the legend produced in 1476 by Anton Sorg in Augsburg.

Brendan's journeys are among the most enduring of European legends, about the Atlantic wanderings of the 6th-century Irish monastic saint Brendan of Clonfert and his 16 companions in search of the Promised Land of the Saints. I am an admirer of the Dolmen letterpress-printed editions, and this printing bears all the hallmarks of my interest: handset in Pilgrim type with Victor Hammer's initials printed on Van Gelder mouldmade "Unicorn" paper and designed by Dolmen co-founder Liam Miller. Our copy, signed by the translator, is number 127, but the first 50 numbered copies are specially bound with hand-colored woodcuts. As lovely as the our copy is, I admit to coveting a copy from the first 50.

View other Staff Picks.

-- MAX, Head of Special Collections

[uwmspeccoll]

Happy St.Patrick’s Day!

St.Patrick was a historical figure, born in 4th century England. He was sainted and his feast day is today, March 17. To honor the holiday we want to share Holinshed’s Irish Chronicle: The historie of Irelande from the first inhabitation thereof, unto the yeare 1509. It was originally intended to be a natural history of the known world, but after the death of its first creator, Reynor Wolfe, Raphael Holinshed, his assistant, narrowed the scope to Great Britain. The volume we are highlighting today focuses on Ireland in particular. The text is from the Elizabethan edition printed in 1577, it is still relatively legible to the modern English reader but has variations in words and spellings. This three part chronicle is also important to the history of literature because it was a source of knowledge for English playwright, William Shakespeare when writing Macbeth and King Lear. Several pages describe the life of St.Patrick from his childhood in Roman Britain, to his capture and enslavement by the Irish, his escape, his religious education and his return to Ireland. He is now the patron Saint of Ireland.

Our copy is a 1979 Dolmen Press Edition, printed with the woodcut illustrations from the first edition. Not much is known about the creator of the original woodcuts but the British Library speculates, “The woodcut illustrations of the 1577 edition were intended to bring the textual account to life, but not to be historically realistic or to serve as a documentary source in themselves. Although most of the costly woodcuts used were commissioned specifically for the project, a large number of them were reused throughout the work and as such illustrate types rather than specific individuals or events.“ Dolmen Press was an Irish owned and operated publisher founded in 1951 to provide a publishing outlet for Irish poetry "and occupies a central position in the story of Irish poetry after W. B. Yeats. ”

Today St.Patrick’s Day in the United States has been almost completely transformed into a secular holiday celebrating Ireland, Irish ancestry, and all things Irish. This transformation started in the 1700′s when large cities in America were highly populated with Irish immigrants and their political leaders wanted to celebrate their Irish beginnings.

-- Claire, Special Collections Graduate Fieldworker.