Special Offer to Independent Binders
The Petrarch Press is pleased to offer independent bookbinders a limited number of handmade-paper copies in sheets of our latest publication: Edward FitzGerald’s Rubaiyát of Omar Kháyyám.
About the Rubaiyát
Our text, that of the 1859 First Edition, is supplemented with six additional quatrains FitzGerald added to his later editions.
“A miracle happens: from the fortuitous conjunction of a Persian astronomer who condescended to write poetry and an eccentric Englishman who peruses Oriental and Hispanic books, perhaps without understanding them completely, emerges an extraordinary poet who resembles neither of them… All collaboration is mysterious. That of the Englishman and the Persian was even more so, for the two were quite different, and perhaps in life might not have been friends; death and vicissitudes and time led one to know the other and make them into a single poet.”
Jorge Luis Borges from his essay The Enigma of Edward FitzGerald
The 41-page text was printed in two colors with our Albion handpress on both handmade paper and parchment. The handset Kennerley Old Style type, including accents and a custom ornament, was cast specially for this publication in our own type foundry.
Facing the gold-ornamented title page is a unique frontispiece portrait of Edward FitzGerald, reproduced for us in Collotype by Benrido Atelier in Kyoto, Japan.
15 copies were printed on sheepskin parchment, and 80 on handmade paper. Our standard price for the bound handmade-paper edition is $450. Of these 80 handmade-paper copies, 3 sets of sheets are reserved* for sale to bookbinders. [* When we exhaust our inventory of bound copies, any unsold sets of sheets will receive the standard binding, as needed.]
To learn more about this special edition:
Overview of the Standard Editions
Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
How we established our text
Finding the Text of the Rubáiyát
Available Now
When you order, you will receive the folded and collated, un-sewn sheets of one numbered copy from the handmade-paper edition for $350*. Printing is now complete, and we can fulfill your order immediately.
Once your special binding is finished, we will also be pleased to post photographs and details of your finished work here on website.
Need more information? Please contact us with your questions.
To order your set of sheets, please request an invoice for online payment:
The Petrarch Press
PO Box 488
9690 Stackhouse Lane
Oregon House, CA 95962
U.S.A.
+1 (530) 692-9531
* Plus 7.5% CA Sales Tax when delivered in California, except with a valid State Resale number.
The Petrarch Press is a member of the Guild of Bookworkers