In 1788 William Blake invented a method of relief etching that he later called ‘Illuminated Printing’. This made it possible to print both the text of his poems and the images that he created to illustrate them from the same copper plate in an engraver’s rolling press. The lecture, by renowned Blake scholar Michael Phillips,will explore Blake's invention in the context of conventional eighteenth-century illustrated book production, its metaphorical significance for Blake, the creation of unique illuminated books like the Songs of Innocence, and Blake’s supreme achievement as an artist-printmaker.

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