Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat in Color

Colophon Author: Omar Khayyam Translator: Edward FitzGerald Illustrator: Elihu Vedder Cover design: Elihu Vedder Desktop publishing: Willem v.d. Berg Printing: Pumbo B.V. Omar Khayyam was famous during his lifetime in the 12th century not as a poet but as an astronomer and mathematician. Although the authenticity of all the poetry attributed to Omar Khayyam is not completely certain, Edward FitzGerald published in 1859 the English translation of 75 quatrains which with certainty belong to Omar Khayyam's pen. Edward FitzGerald's work has been published in several hundred editions and has inspired similar translation efforts in English and in many other languages. Elihu Vedder, an American painter best known for this work, undertook to illustrate Edward FitzGerald's work. His drawings in pencil, ink, chalk, and watercolor on tinted paper and his edition of the Rubaiyat were completed in an over a ten month period from May 1883 to March 1884 while in Rome. This book was immediately praised as a masterwork of art and this way Elihu Vedder secured his place as a master artist as he set the standard for the artist-designed book by creating all of its elements. This magnificent, completely illustrated color edition is the edition that made Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat great and what it today is praised for, not only a wonderful work of literature but also one of the most lavishly decorated books the world has ever seen.