Associated Products
Electronic editions of Blake's Small Book of Designs copy A and Large Book of Designs copy A (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Electronic editions of Blake's Small Book of Designs copy A and Large Book of Designs copy A
Author: William Blake
Abstract: The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the publication of electronic editions of Blake's Small Book of Designs copy A and Large Book of Designs copy A; the republication of Blake's large color printed drawings of 1795, with five additional impressions and all of them now searchable; and the addition to the Blake Collection Lists of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts—31 contributing institutions altogether. The Archive now also features newly revised textual transcriptions for Blake's descriptions of his illustrations to Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso," as well as updated Help documentation that reflects the launch of the Virtual Lightbox and recent improvements to the Archive's search engines.
The Archive has already published in its Preview Mode a selection of 23 impressions of the large color printed drawings (at least one impression of each) and the small version of Pity printed from a different matrix. With this republication, the Archive adds five impressions of five designs: Newton (Lutheran Church in America), never before reproduced in color, God Judging Adam (Philadelphia Museum of Art), Nebuchadnezzar (Minneapolis Institute of Arts), Satan Exulting over Eve (Tate Collection), and Naomi Entreating Ruth and Orpah to Return to the Land of Moab (Fitzwilliam Museum). The Archive now contains all extant impressions of the twelve designs except the last impression of Hecate, or the Night of Enitharmon's Joy, in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, which declined the Archive's request for a high-resolution image. With this republication, all the impressions of the color printed drawings are searchable and their illustration descriptions accessible, enabling users to engage in detailed, specific, and reliable searches of motifs, objects, subjects, and gestures.
Year: 2012
Primary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/work.xq?workid=bb136&java=yesPrimary URL Description: A Small Book of Designs, copy A
Secondary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/work.xq?workid=bb85&java=yesSecondary URL Description: A Large Book of Designs, copy A
Access Model: Open Access
Electronic edition of The Pickering Manuscript (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Electronic edition of The Pickering Manuscript
Author: William Blake
Abstract: In 1803, after three increasingly unhappy years in Felpham, Sussex, as artist-in-residence for William Hayley, Blake wrote in a letter to his friend and patron Thomas Butts, "O why was I born with a different face / Why was I not born like the rest of my race" (Erdman pages 733-34). He varied that couplet only slightly in the separate poem "Mary,” which at some point he copied neatly into a 22-page manuscript with nine other poems—seven known from no other source—on paper that he reutilized from Hayley's Designs to a Series of Ballads, 1802 (to which Blake had contributed engraved illustrations). On the spacious inside margins he wrote out the ten poems that constitute what is conventionally known as The Pickering Manuscript—after one of its several nineteenth century owners.
The Pickering Manuscript follows An Island in the Moon as the second major project overseen by the Archive team from the University of Rochester’s department of English. The manuscripts, like other works in the Archive, have fully searchable texts and images supported by our ImageSizer application; by the Archive's revamped search engines, which allow more productive searching; and by the Virtual Lightbox, our new digital tool that allows users to examine images (including images of texts) side by side, as well as to manipulate them for close study. The manuscripts feature zoomed images of textual cruxes to strengthen the explanatory power of Editors’ Notes. A sophisticated XML tagset integrated with a straightforward and legible color coding system (using XSLT and CSS) reduces the clutter of conventional textual signs and symbols. A simple key to the color coding is available from every page of the transcriptions.
Year: 2011
Primary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/work.xq?workid=bb126&java=yesPrimary URL Description: The Pickering Manuscript
Access Model: Open Access
Electronic edition of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy E (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Electronic edition of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy E
Author: William Blake
Abstract: This copy, prepared in 1806 especially for Thomas Butts, Blake's patron, is in the Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Complete copies of Songs consist of 54 impressions; due to the way Blake assembled Songs copy E, it has 54 impressions, but it is missing "The Clod & the Pebble" and has duplicates of "Laughing Song." Almost all the impressions were printed from various print runs, with most of the Innocence impressions coming from the raw sienna and yellow-ochre printing of 1789 (see Innocence copy B in the Archive), and its Experience impressions coming from the yellow-ochre impressions that form Experience of Songs copies B, C, and D, printed in 1794 (copies B and C are in the Archive).
Like all the illuminated books in the Archive, the text and images of Songs copy E are fully searchable and are supported by our Virtual Lightbox and ImageSizer applications. With the Archive's Compare feature, users can easily juxtapose multiple impressions of any plate across the different copies of this or any of the other illuminated books, and with the Lightbox, users can examine images from any of the works side by side, as well as crop, zoom, and juxtapose them for close study. New protocols for transcription, which produce improved accuracy and fuller documentation in editors' notes, have been applied to copy E and to all the Songs texts previously published.
Year: 2011
Primary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/copy.xq?copyid=songsie.e&java=yesPrimary URL Description: Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy E
Access Model: Open Access
The republication of nine electronic editions of Blake’s water colors illustrating the works of John Milton (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: The republication of nine electronic editions of Blake’s water colors illustrating the works of John Milton
Author: William Blake
Abstract: “Comus,” Thomas Set, 1801
“Comus,” Butts Set, c. 1815
“On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” Thomas Set, 1809
“On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” Butts Set, c. 1815
“Paradise Lost,” Thomas Set, 1807
“Paradise Lost,” Butts Set, 1808
“Paradise Lost,” Linnell Set, 1822
“Paradise Regained” c. 1816-20
“L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso” c. 1816-20
These nine water color series were previously published in our Preview mode, one that provides all the features of the Archive except illustration descriptions and Image Search; with this republication, those features become available.
The republication of the Milton water colors is timed to take advantage of the Archive's revamped search engines, launched in July, which allow for more detailed, specific and reliable searching of illustration descriptions, and the Virtual Lightbox, our new digital tool that allows users to examine images side by side, as well as to crop, zoom, and juxtapose them for close study. It is the ideal means for studying and comparing Blake’s Milton watercolors. The republication of these nine series represents a major advance toward the Archive's goal of eventually republishing all works currently available in Preview mode and publishing all new Archive images so that they are searchable.
Year: 2011
Primary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/indexworks.htmPrimary URL Description: Blake Archive Index, from which it is possible to navigate to:
“Comus,” Thomas Set, 1801
“Comus,” Butts Set, c. 1815
“On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” Thomas Set, 1809
“On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” Butts Set, c. 1815
“Paradise Lost,” Thomas Set, 1807
“Paradise Lost,” Butts Set, 1808
“Paradise Lost,” Linnell Set, 1822
“Paradise Regained” c. 1816-20
“L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso” c. 1816-20
Access Model: Open Access
Revamped search engines for Archive content and a new research application called the Virtual Lightbox (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Revamped search engines for Archive content and a new research application called the Virtual Lightbox
Author: William Shaw, technical editor
Abstract: Our new search engines provide a powerful, streamlined interface for exploring both textual and pictorial elements of Blake's work in the Archive. In addition to searching transcriptions of Blake's work, users can now search visual motifs, work titles, and editors' notes and detailed illustration descriptions. Users can also restrict search results by date range, order them by composition or print date, or broaden them by including synonyms and related words from the Archive's new search term thesaurus. These features make possible precise searches for details in Blake's images. For example, users can search for figures in specific postures (such as "running" or "arms raised") in designs executed during the 1790s. It is also possible to search for many motifs simultaneously—for example, all designs with sheep, AND trees, AND a shepherd—or to search for works containing any one of the search terms—for example, all designs with sheep, OR trees, OR a shepherd. The updated search engines also restore search functionality to the Archive's electronic edition of The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by David V. Erdman.
The Virtual Lightbox is an application that allows users to collect, study, and manipulate images in the Archive. It incorporates all the features of our existing Java applets, Inote and ImageSizer, while adding a number of new capabilities that make it an ideal workspace for research in the Archive. For example, the Lightbox allows users to examine works in different media side by side; to crop, zoom, and juxtapose images for close study; and to access image information and illustration descriptions from within the Lightbox workspace. The Archive plans to release the source code of the Virtual Lightbox under the MIT License later this year.
Year: 2011
Primary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/help/lightbox/Primary URL Description: Using the Virtual Lightbox
Secondary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/search.html?java=yesSecondary URL Description: Search Engines
Access Model: Open Access
Electronic editions of copies D and G of The Book of Thel (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Electronic editions of copies D and G of The Book of Thel
Author: William Blake
Abstract: Copy D is in the British Museum and copy G is in the Fitzwilliam Museum.
The Book of Thel is dated 1789 by Blake on the title page, but the first plate (Thel's Motto) and the last (her descent into the netherworld) appear to have been completed and first printed in 1790, while Blake was working on The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Copies D and G are from the first of three printings of Thel, during which Blake produced at least thirteen copies, printed in five different inks to diversify his stock. Copy D, for example, was printed in yellow ochre ink, copy G in green and greenish-blue inks; both are lightly finished in water colors. Copies from this press run were certainly on hand when Blake included the book in his advertisement "To the Public" of October 1793: "The Book of Thel, a Poem in Illuminated Printing. Quarto, with 6 designs, price 3s." Copies D and G join copies in the Archive from the other two printings: copy F, printed and colored c. 1795, and copy O, printed and colored c. 1818. They also join copies H, J, L, and R from the first printing.
Like all the illuminated books in the Archive, the text and images of Thel copies D and G are fully searchable and are supported by our Inote and ImageSizer applications. With the Archive's Compare feature, users can easily juxtapose multiple impressions of any plate across the different copies of this or any of the other illuminated books. New protocols for transcription, which produce improved accuracy and fuller documentation in editors' notes, have been applied to copies D and G and to all the Thel texts previously published.
Year: 2011
Primary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/copy.xq?copyid=thel.d&java=yesPrimary URL Description: The Book of Thel, copy D
Secondary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/copy.xq?copyid=thel.g&java=yesSecondary URL Description: The Book of Thel, copy G
Access Model: Open Access
Electronic edition of thirty-three of Blake’s water color illustrations to the Bible (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Electronic edition of thirty-three of Blake’s water color illustrations to the Bible
Author: William Blake
Abstract: The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the publication of an electronic edition of thirty-three of Blake’s water color illustrations to the Bible. All take their subjects from the New Testament and have been added to the twenty Old Testament subjects published in March 2010 as “Illustrations to the Bible, c. 1780-1824,” under Drawings and Paintings, Water Color Drawings. This new group is presented in our Preview mode, one that provides all the features of the Archive except Image Search and Inote (which provides detailed descriptions of Blake’s images).
Blake executed most of these New Testament water colors c. 1800-05 for his patron Thomas Butts. The exceptions are The Whore of Babylon of 1809 and The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins in the Yale Center for British Art, datable to c. 1825. The subjects range from the childhood of Jesus to his ascension, the later history of his parents and one of his major followers, St. Paul, and a group of eight designs based on the Book of Revelation. While the illustrations of the life of Christ are fairly conventional in their subjects, in part because of the long tradition of picturing almost every event in the Gospels, individual motifs recall designs in Blake’s illuminated books and thus offer a window on Blake’s visual interpretation of the Bible. The illustrations of Revelation complement Blake’s intense engagement with apocalyptic events and images in his own poetry.
The selection of fifty-three biblical water colors now available in the Archive will be supplemented in the future with early works, such as Abraham and Isaac, datable to c. 1780, and will continue through Blake’s final biblical water colors, such as Moses Placed in the Ark of the Bulrushes.
Year: 2011
Primary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/vgroup.xq?id=biblicalwc&mode=vwork&landing=object&java=yesPrimary URL Description: Water Color Drawings Illustrating the Bible
Access Model: Open Access
Electronic editions of Blake's illustrations to Robert John Thornton's edition of The Pastorals of Virgil (1821) and a selection of his preliminary drawings for his Virgil wood engravings (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Electronic editions of Blake's illustrations to Robert John Thornton's edition of The Pastorals of Virgil (1821) and a selection of his preliminary drawings for his Virgil wood engravings
Author: William Blake
Abstract: When planning a third edition of his successful school text of Virgil's Pastorals, Robert John Thornton employed Blake to contribute some of the new designs for the two-volume work. His assignment was to illustrate Ambrose Philips' English "imitation" of Virgil's first eclogue. Blake produced four small designs as relief etchings on a single copperplate, but these were rejected by Thornton. There may have been several reasons, including the unconventional style of etching, the semi-nudity of some of the figures, and the difficulties letterpress printers would have encountered with such an unusual matrix. Apparently Blake was asked to prepare wood engravings, a medium in which he had never before worked, instead of relief etchings. He executed a series of at least twenty-one pen, pencil, and wash preliminary drawings; these were probably approved by Thornton. The wood engravings that Blake produced from them, however, were far less conventional. Thornton was again taken aback by Blake's bold transgression of contemporary styles and sensibilities. Several influential artists, including John Linnell and Sir Thomas Lawrence, commended Blake's work; their opinions convinced Thornton to print them in his 1821 edition. Three designs were engraved by a journeyman for the sake of comparison with Blake's own productions in wood, and Thornton added a statement below Blake's first design implying his hesitations about Blake's artistry. Pre-publication proofs of Blake's wood engravings show that each group of four were cut on a single block; these were cut apart, slightly reduced in size on all four sides, and printed with brief letterpress captions. This format, as published in Thornton's Virgil, is preserved in our reproductions.
Year: 2011
Primary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/work.xq?workid=bb504&java=yesPrimary URL Description: The Pastorals of Virgil
Secondary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/work.xq?workid=but769&java=yesSecondary URL Description: Drawings for "The Pastorals of Virgil"
Access Model: Open Access
Electronic edition of nineteen of Blake’s tempera paintings illustrating the Bible (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Electronic edition of nineteen of Blake’s tempera paintings illustrating the Bible
Author: William Blake
Abstract: The Bible had an enormous influence on Blake's work as both artist and poet. Among his many and complex responses to that text is a group of paintings he created for his patron Thomas Butts, beginning in 1799. Most were executed in that year and the next, but at least three were probably completed while Blake was in Felpham, 1802 and 1803. Fifty-three of these "cabinet paintings" (as small works of this type were called in Blake's time) have been recorded. Only thirty are now traceable, seven based on the Old Testament and the remainder on the New.
This group of nineteen paintings is the second installment in our publication of a large selection of Blake's drawings and paintings illustrating the Bible. The first installment, a group of twenty water colors with subjects based on the Old Testament, was published in March of this year.
The medium of these paintings, now generally called "tempera," is water-based with a glue and/or gum binder. Blake was probably trying to create jewel-like paintings; in his Descriptive Catalogue of 1809, he compared them to "enamels" and "precious stones." He never used the word "tempera" but called his medium "fresco"—a term that recalls Renaissance wall paintings—and claimed that he had invented the new genre of "portable Fresco," an alternative to paintings in oil. Most were executed on canvas, but three are on copper and one (The Agony in the Garden) is on tinned iron.
Unfortunately, Blake's medium was inherently unstable. The pigment layers expanded and contracted at different rates. Almost all his temperas of 1799-1803 show considerable surface cracking and other defects; many have been repaired at least once. Some, such as The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, have been over-painted in ways that misrepresent Blake's original work.
Year: 2010
Primary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/vgroup.xq?id=biblicalwc&mode=vwork&landing=object&java=yesPrimary URL Description: Illustrations to the Bible
Access Model: Open Access
Electronic edition of An Island in the Moon (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Electronic edition of An Island in the Moon
Author: William Blake
Abstract: An Island in the Moon (Fitzwilliam Museum) is an incomplete manuscript written in pen and ink in Blake’s hand. It notably contains the earliest extant drafts of "Nurse’s Song," "HOLY THURSDAY," and "The Little Boy Lost," which make their first published appearance in his Songs of Innocence (1789).
Topical allusions and the history of Blake’s associations with the London social circle of the Rev. A. S. Mathew and his wife Harriet in the 1780s suggest a period of composition c. 1784-85. Before the manuscript was given to the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1905, two or more leaves may have been removed. The contents of a final page of lettering and rough sketches (object 18), apparently unrelated to the text of Island, may reflect Robert Blake's attempts to draw subjects that had been set as exercises for him by older brother William (see Editors’ Notes for object 18).
In An Island in the Moon Blake, writing in his mid to late 20s, demonstrates a born satirist’s instincts for the ridiculous with a boisterous sendup of middle class London social and intellectual life distilled into eleven brief chapters of "Great confusion & disorder" (object 10). The use of dialogue interspersed with song lyrics links the narrative to both contemporary theatrical forms and broader eighteenth-century satirical traditions. Blake’s experiences in the Mathew circle may be the main inspiration for these mocking reflections, which feature impertinent, passionate, confrontational characters, some if not all derived from Blake’s contemporaries, probably including Blake himself and his younger brother Robert as Quid and Suction. Although Blake left it orphaned, untitled, and unfinished in a heavily revised manuscript, Island is in some sense a primary literary experiment for him, setting the undertone of much to follow.
Year: 2010
Primary URL:
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/work.xq?workid=bb74&java=yesPrimary URL Description: An Island in the Moon
Access Model: Open Access
Electronic editions of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell copies B and E (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Electronic editions of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell copies B and E
Author: William Blake
Abstract: Only nine complete copies of the Marriage are known to exist; copies B and E—here reproduced for the first time in their entirety and in color—join copies C, D, F, G, H, and I, previously published in the Archive.
Blake etched twenty-seven plates for the Marriage in relief in 1790. Copy B, one of the first complete copies printed, is essentially monochrome, relying on colored inks rather than water color washes for its coloring. It was produced with copy H in 1790, with plates printed in various shades of reddish brown, yellow ochre, raw umber, olive green, and green on both sides of the leaves. However, the impressions forming copy H (Fitzwilliam Museum) were extensively finished in watercolors and pen and ink, with texts gone over in various colored inks, letter by letter, line by line, presumably when sold in 1821 to Blake’s young patron, John Linnell. Copy B, its sister copy, looks nothing like copy H, but provides an excellent idea of what copy H originally looked like.
Copy E is also a sister copy, beautifully and heavily color printed c. 1794 on one side of the leaf with copy F (Morgan Library). It was produced in the style used for Songs of Experience of Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy F and Visions of the Daughters of Albion copy F, both color printed c. 1794 and in the Archive. The plates in copy E were once ordered other than 1-27, as they are now, but this variant plate order is probably not by Blake. The red outlines around eleven images are not by Blake.
Like all the illuminated books in the Archive, the texts and images of Marriage copies B and E are fully searchable and are supported by our Inote and ImageSizer applications. With the Archive's Compare feature, users can easily juxtapose multiple impressions of any plate across the different copies of this or any of the other illuminated books.
Year: 2010
Primary URL:
https://blake-dev.lib.unc.edu/exist/blake/archive/copy.xq?copyid=mhh.bPrimary URL Description: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, copy B
Secondary URL:
https://blake-dev.lib.unc.edu/exist/blake/archive/copy.xq?copyid=mhh.eSecondary URL Description: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, copy E
Access Model: Open Access
"Introduction to the William Blake Archive" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: "Introduction to the William Blake Archive"
Author: Mark Crosby
Abstract: Mark Crosby presented an "Introduction to the William Blake Archive" in two talks at Ulster University on October 27, 2010.
Date: 10/27/2010
"Humanities and the Meaning of the Text" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: "Humanities and the Meaning of the Text"
Author: Ashley Reed
Abstract: Ashley Reed spoke on the Blake Archive as part of a panel on "Humanities and the Meaning of the Text" at the annual SAMLA Convention, Atlanta, GA, on November 5, 2010.
Date: 11/05/2010
Conference Name: South Atlantic Modern Language Association
Blake and the Archive (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Blake and the Archive
Author: Joseph Viscomi
Abstract: Joseph Viscomi presented a lecture on Blake and the Archive at DePaul University on February 21, 2011.
Date: 02/21/2011
Revisiting the Romantic Archive in the Information Age (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Revisiting the Romantic Archive in the Information Age
Author: Joe Fletcher
Abstract: Joe Fletcher spoke on Blake and the Archive as part of a panel on "Revisiting the Romantic Archive in the Information Age" at the annual International Conference on Romanticism, Montreal, on November 3, 2011.
Date: 11/03/2011
Conference Name: International Conference on Romanticism
Blake and the Archive (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Blake and the Archive
Author: Joseph Viscomi
Abstract: Joseph Viscomi presented a lecture on Blake and the Archive at Meredith College on February 1, 2012.
Date: 02/01/2012
Digital Museums, Archives, and Publications (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Digital Museums, Archives, and Publications
Author: William Shaw
Abstract: William Shaw spoke on the Blake Archive as part of a panel on "Digital Museums, Archives, and Publications" at the 2012 CHAT Festival (Collaborations: Humanities, Arts, and Technology), Duke University, on February 6, 2012.
Date: 02/06/2012
Conference Name: 2012 CHAT Festival (Collaborations: Humanities, Arts, and Technology)