[2], 15, [1], (1 plate), [2] + plates with accompanying text. Illustrated with 64 mounted chromolithographed plates each mounted on heavy stock paper by Owen Jones, with tissue guards; many with accompanying text and/or gilt coloring, including: 31 full-page, 16 half-size plates, 7 decorative margin plates (some with initials), 9 decorative initials (some are fairly large), and a headpiece plate; plus a mounted full-page monochrome plate, and an added chromo-illuminated title page bound in; also, 1 wood-engraved plate with 12 design figures. (Large folio) 21½x14½, decoratively embossed full brown leather with recessed front and rear covers, rebacked with original gilt-lettered backstrip preserved, raised bands, beveled edges, all edges gilt. Third Edition.
Third Edition, large folio issue, with each plate mounted on a single leaf; standard size copies have many of the plates mounted over two leaves. Originally published in 1844 (another edition of 1848) without the 1849 dated illuminated titlepage present here, Mr. Humphrey's sumptuously illustrated survey of the art of medieval book illumination. The monochrome plate is located where plate XXII is (possibly replacing a chromolithograph plate) identified as a page from a MS. of the Comedies of Terrence, in the Library of the Arsenal, at Paris. Muir states that the book is "a magnificently successful attempt to convey the flavour of some of the masterpieces in this genre.” Ray further points out that it is “an early masterpiece in the art of chromolithography, this book represents one of the high points in the creative collaboration between Humphreys, the gifted student and practitioner of the medieval art of illumination, and Owen Jones, the master printer and book designer who was one of the pioneers of the use of chromolithography for book illustration. Humphreys, not content to imitate his medieval predecessors, created fresh designs in their spirit, thus producing some of the most attractive of chromolithographic books” - Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England, p. 145; Muir, Victorian Illustrated Books, p. 155. Scarce in any edition.