Morris originally asked Arthur J. Gaskin to illustrate this work, his longest prose romance, but was unhappy with his designs and once again turned to Burne-Jones.

One of Caxton's most important works, according to Morris, and with many ornaments including the the first use of the larger Kelmscott's printers mark. It was also the first book to be sold by the press itself and not through a publisher.

Most copies were bound in original limp vellum with silk ties but Peterson notes that "Cockerell instructed Leighton to bind thirty copies in 'half holland uniform with the Golden Lengend' and these were later donated to British and American libraries."