Le Morte Darthur
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Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur: The most ancient and famovs history of the renowned Prince Arthvr, king of Britaine wherein is declared his life and death, with all his glorious battailes against the Saxons, Saracens and pagans, which (for the honour of his country) he most worthily atchieued; as also, all the noble acts, and heroicke deeds of his valiant knights of the Rovnd Table
[London: printed by William Stansby for Iacob Bloome, 1634] Volume II
Bangor University's Special Collections
William Stansby's 1634 edition of the Morte Darthur was so popular that copies were preserved and still in use in the nineteenth century. While the title and contents pages combine early modern printing models with the woodcuts used by William Caxton and Wynkyn de Worde, England's first printer and his apprentice, in the 1480s, the body of the edition is printed in black letter, reminiscent of the earliest printed books and, ultimately, their medieval manuscript predecessors.
William Stansby (1572–1638) was one of the most prolific London printers and publishers of the Jacobean and Caroline periods. Apart from Malory's Morte Darthur, Stansby's best known contribution to the printing of English literature is the first folio of the complete works of his contemporary, the writer Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's friend and rival, in 1616.