[JERRY KELLY] Buonarroti, Michelangelo. Sonnets of Michelangelo Buonarroti. (1992).

Large octavo. 31 pp. A Jerry Kelly manuscript consisting of nine of Michelangelo's sonnets, translated by Elizabeth Jennings. Handwritten on vintage English handmade paper in black ink, with red title and initials and blue for the prefatory note and the colophon. Formerly of A. Colish and the Stinehour Press, Jerry Kelly is one of the leading contemporary practitioners of, and advocates for, the fusion of calligraphy with typography. In 1990, he delivered a speech at Harvard entitled "Calligraphy for the Typographic Book," and has authored or edited popular books on the subject including A Century for the Century: Fine Printed Books from 1900 to 1999 and Artist & Alphabet: Twentieth Century Calligraphy and Letter Art in America. As proprietor of his own press, Kelly-Winterton, he issued a letterpress edition of Michelangelo's collected sonnets, in 2005. Though famous mostly for his paintings and sculptures, Michelangelo was also an accomplished poet, and Kelly's restrained, exacting calligraphy shows great appreciation for these graceful sonnets.

The manuscript is bound by Mindell Dubansky in full red morocco, gilt lettered on the front cover, and housed in a patterned-paper slipcase with red leather edges. This is a desirable calligraphic specimen by one of the real champions of the art today, in a handsome binding that nicely matches the tenor of the lettering inside. Manuscript, binding, and slipcase all very fine. (21817) $3500.00

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