Abstract

William Morris, a representative of the English Arts and Crafts movement, founded
the book publishing house Kelmscott Press in 1891 in response to the shortcomings he
felt suffered by modern society in the field of book production. His new vision of book
design was influenced by a great admiration for traditional handwritten manuscripts:
the medieval and renaissance traditions. In his concept of the new book design, Morris
was inspired by 15th-century Venetian book printing, which was richly illuminated and
decorated. In order to achieve a similar result, he created his own fonts for his books,
which on the one hand approached the old patterns, but moved away from modern
preferences. Books from the Kelmscott Press were thus a unique appearance in the art of
book printing in the 19th century. They have become a modern experiment fighting the
achievements of modern times and at the same time the beginning of the autor-books.
The article focuses on the presentation of the uniqueness of this publishing house for
modern art of the end of the 19th century and on the analysis of individual book gems
published in this publishing house.

Keywords: book experiment, Kelmscott Press, William Morris