The Splendid Book Design of the 1946 Edition of Gibbon’s 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

At Open Culture,

"In 1929, the book publisher George Macy founded The Limited Editions Club (LEC), an imprint tasked with publishing finely illustrated limited editions of classic books. In the years to come, Macy worked with artists like Matisse and Picasso, and photographers like Edward Weston, to produce books with artistic illustrations on their inner pages. And sometimes The Limited Editions Club even turned its design focus to other parts of the book. Take for example this 1946 edition of Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and its pretty amazing spine design."

See Gibbon, Great Books of the Western World (first edition, 52 Vol., 1952) volumes 40-41, Great Books of the Western World (second edition, 60 Vol., 1990) volumes 37-38.