Ben Maggs
Fine printing and private press

Love was central to the Arts and Crafts movement. While the passionate chivalric romances so adored by William Morris may take the spotlight, the love of art and the pursuit of it through the labor of craft was fundamental. In today's language, we might even extend the ethos of the movement and its practice, seen here in the craft of needlework so elegantly described by May Morris, to encompass a form of love for oneself, something equally as important to hold dear this Valentine's Day

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Dr. Hazel Tubman
Early European Books & Illuminations

Maybe a bit of a mournful selection for Valentine's Day, but I've chosen this edition of Roger Ascham's letters, printed in 1602, and bound for the great French bibliophile Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617).

I've chosen it for its binding; it features the joint arms of de Thou and his first wife, Marie Barbançon, and their combined 'IAM' cipher on the spine. Marie had died the year before the book was published, in 1601, and I like to think there's something quite romantic about the fact that he has retained their entwined arms for his books, even after her death (though he did marry his second wife pretty promptly in 1602, so it's feasible that he simply forgot to update his instructions to his binder).

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Gus Harding
Philosophy & Economics

The marriage and philosophical alliance of John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor stands amongst the great relationships of Victorian intellectual culture.

Harriet Taylor was an enormous influence on Mill. She was his co-author and absolute intellectual equal. It is worth quoting his moving dedication to her memory in On Liberty:

"Were I but capable of interpreting to the world one half the great thoughts and noble feelings which are buried in her grave, I should be the medium of a greater benefit to it, than is ever likely to arise from anything that I can write, unprompted and unassisted by her all but unrivalled wisdom."

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Chris Stork
Early British

What could be more romantic than a secret rendevouz in a fashionable Parisian pleasue garden? Marred only by a couple of annoying old blokes, Zut alors!

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