Folio Archives 200: King Henry’s Prayer Book limited edition facsimile 2009

King Henry’s Prayer Book limited edition facsimile 2009

Exquisite! That is the most appropriate term to describe this extraordinary limited edition from the Folio Society. It is one of a series of treasures owned by King Henry VIII that were produced in limited editions by the FS.

This was Henry’s private prayer book. It is written in Latin and Henry has made copious marginal notes in his own hand throughout the book that were aimed at helping him interpret the scripture. These are interpreted in the accompanying commentary volume. It was given to Henry in 1540 by the French artist Jean Mallard, at the beginning of the turbulent last decade of his life.

There are seven illuminated miniatures scattered through the book, some depicting the King himself.

The original binding of the book is intact, and this facsimile recreates it exactly down to the brilliant red silk velvet covering, brass clasps, wooden boards and brass decorations. The clasps were made by Laboratorio Chiesi in Bologna.

The facsimile volume has 360 pages printed on heavy mock-vellum Furioso paper, the page edges being gilded and shuffled.

The accompanying commentary volume by James P. Carley has 96 pages and is unillustrated except for a frontispiece. It describes Henry’s reading practices and the psalter itself as well as the multiple annotations in the book. The endpapers are plain gilt printed. It is bound in black cloth cover blocked with Henry’s initials in gilt.

Both volumes are housed in a black solander box (24.2x17x7.5cm.) printed on the front with the same gilt initials as the commentary volume, and with edge titling. The original price from the FS was £995 and it was limited to 980 copies, mine being number 54.











































































Commentary volume














An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.

Wow... not something I'd normally be interested in, but this really looks amazing! Thanks for continuing to do these, wcarter! Much appreciated.

What a gorgeous book. Thanks for continuing your amazing series >1 wcarter:.

This is really something special. I hope folio get back to making some more brilliant facsimiles

>1 wcarter: this facsimile recreates it exactly down to the brilliant red silk velvet covering, brass clasps, wooden boards and brass decorations.

Like with all FS facsimiles, "exact replica" is never the right descripton for a FS facsimile.

In this case, the original in the British Library has text on the spine, has only two corner pieces on the front cover and has no clasps, only some remains of clasps. So I suppose it's hard to tell what those clasps exactly would have looked like.
And I don't suppose that the facsimile has leather on the inner sides of the cover.



https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=royal_ms_2_a_xvi_fs001r

>5 joco30:
I was quoting from the FS promotional brochure.
I suspect they tried to create something as close as possible to the original when it was first presented to King henry, rather than the tattered version that now exists. The FS corner pieces look almost identical to the ones in your pic from the British Library.

>6 wcarter: The FS corner pieces look almost identical to the ones in your pic from the British Library.

One might say they come close, but I have the impression that whereas the orginal ones have open spaces in the corner pieces, the facsimile corner pieces are solid and just painted black or darkened ?

Two hundred Folio Archive entries, Warwick! Four years of threads useful, decorative, and, of course, enabling. The style, the photographic skill, the energy, the patience, all to be admired. From this Devotee, and I imagine countless others, many, many thanks for making this such a splendid feature of the FSD Group.

>8 affle:

What he said. Brilliant achievement, Warwick. Could even be the source material for a future best seller. Published by Folio, even ...?

Agreed. I enjoy the pictures and brief synopsis. Also King Henry's book is gorgeous. I recently purchased it online for a reasonable price (considering,) and was very happy with the production. Having so many limited editions large in size, I was at first surprised but then pleased how small and easy to read this book is. Great posts and keep them coming.

>7 joco30: Seems a little pedantic.

>11 U_238:

Hmm... well, it wasn't meant that way.
Although I own several facsimiles from FS, it just bothers me when they (I mean FS) proclaim them to be exact replicas.

As another example take the Mappa Mundi. They say that they went all the way to make the gold look just like the original: first they printed the gold and then they covered it with some layer to make it look more darker, like the original is now. But on the other hand, they used green, blue and red colors that you don't see anymore now on the original. I don't understand why you would go all the way to make one thing look like it is now but at the same time make another look like it was probably in the past. And then they resized the whole thing to 90% of the original size. That's not a facsimile anymore in my view.

>12 joco30:

I mean...Folio Society is not M. Moleiro. If you want exact facsimiles, be prepared to shell out $6500 or more:

https://www.moleiro.com/en/home.htm

At the Folio price point, I'd say they are close enough.

Although, pro tip, many facsimiles can be purchased at a crazy discount through traditional auction houses. They don't hold their value very well. I got the Moleiro 'Book of Felicity' for 92% off and that's fairly normal.

>8 affle:
100% agree. Your archives/reviews are a real treasure in the FSD pages. As are your regular posts and contributions. Much appreciated even if we don't always thank you out loud.

Thank you all. Your felicitations are appreciated.

>8 affle: Excellent call Alan, yes bravo and huge thanks to you Warwick. If only the Folio website displayed as many enabling images for each still available edition as you do in every archive for the unavailable!

Congratulations and thank you from me as well. I read all of these posts with great interest, and appreciate the thought and care that go into them. I have been enabled too many times to count!

My current favourite series of posts. Thank you, Warwick, for delving into the highways and byways of Folio history and inspiring us to seek these volumes out, be that on the secondary market or in the recesses of our own shelves.

I'll add my voice to the chorus. These posts are always a highlight of this group. I wonder if sellers realize how much business they owe to Warwick and his posts.

>19 Redshirt: I have certainly noticed the Warwick effect - there have been several titles I’ve considered buying after one of his posts, only to have the reasonably priced ones in good condition on eBay and Abe snapped up within hours of his post going up. So he’s definitely driving me to seek out titles I wouldn’t otherwise have looked into, and seemingly doing the same for others. Bad for my wallet, but I am grateful to Warwick every time I read one of these gems.