Areopagitica: a speech of Mr. John Milton for the liberty of unlicenc’d printing, to the parliament of England

This book was published by the Doves Press, founded in 1900 by T.J. Cobden Sanderson and Emery Walker. Both were personally familiar with Morris and the Kelmscott Press. In fact, Morris’s early work in designing the Kelmscott typefaces was done in collaboration with Walker. From 1902-1904, the press published the Doves Bible in five volumes, a particularly ambitious and impressive feat of printing.

The Doves Press designed its own font inspired by Nicolas Jenson’s typeforms, called the Doves type (also known as Doves Roman and the Doves Press Fount of type). The work of the Doves Press ended in 1916 after a dispute between the founders. At this point, Cobden-Sanderson threw the press’s metal type into the River Thames to prevent its further use. Today, the Doves type has been preserved for use in the digital age; after salvaging the original metal type from the bed of the Thames, typographer Robert Green has created a digital facsimile of the Doves type. This copy of Milton’s Areopagitica (a speech, fittingly, about printing) displays the beauty and legibility of the Doves type.