ROSSETTI, William Michael (ed.).

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Germ: First edition, bound from the original parts. Reviewing a Millais exhibition in 1886, The Times declared: "The golden book of the Brotherhood was the little magazine called The Germ, of which only four numbers were published, and which is now one of the most treasured of modern bibliographical curiosities". The present copy contains pencil authorship attributions by a later hand.The Germ was established at the beginning of the Pre-Raphaelite movement by four of its founding members: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and William Michael Rossetti. Its mission was "to obtain the thoughts of Artists, upon Nature as evolved in Art". Only four numbers were published, in January, February, March, and May 1850, and the title changed with the third. The magazine was a financial failure but was later recognized as an important organ of the movement and a significant influence upon it. Each issue contained an engraving, poetry, and historical or critical essays on subjects including the early Italian artists whom the group emulated.A preliminary blank bears a note dated 1 July 1882 by the bookseller John Pearson of 46 Pall Mall, stating that "there never was a printed title to it". A later hand quotes the 1886 notice in The Times and supplies authorship attributions throughout. The copy subsequently passed through the hands of the Edinburgh bookseller William Brown, whose label is on the front pastedown.

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