Emerald Flower Mini Lined Hardcover Journal

The location of this special binding is just as beautiful as its covers. It is held in our hometown of Dublin, Ireland, at the Benjamin Iveagh Library, a beautiful wood-panelled room containing more than 5,000 books and manuscripts. The collection, located at Farmleigh House in Phoenix Park, is owned by Marsh’s Library, an immaculately preserved library of the early Enlightenment that remains virtually unchanged in three centuries. Inside its walls are dark oak bookcases filled with 25,000 books, manuscripts, and maps from the 18th century. For the first century and a half of its existence, Marsh’s Library, for which our collection is named, was the only public library in Dublin.

The original volume reproduced here contained The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments ... together with the Psalter, which was the standard prescribed text for use in Anglican church services. This edition was published by the renowned typesetter and entrepreneur John Baskerville (1707–1775), who designed the eponymous serif typeface still in use across the world.

The Book of Common Prayer was purchased in the late 1980s by the Irish bibliophile Benjamin Guinness, 3rd Earl of Iveagh (1937–1992). It is bound in red morocco with gold tooling, gilded edges, and smooth marbled end leaves. We are thrilled to reproduce this spectacular antique binding in a charming green colourway that pays homage to our shared Irish ancestry. We hope the floral adornments of this Emerald Flower design inspire you to harness the generosity of nature as well as the gifts of knowledge.

Inspired by an Irish book binding from 1760 that contained The Book of Common Prayer, which was the standard text for use in Anglican church services, our Emerald Flower design is decorated with rose sprays and cornucopias that call to mind the abundance of nature’s harvest at Thanksgiving.