Europe a Prophecy

Europe a Prophecy is a 1794 prophetic book by the British poet and illustrator William Blake. It is engraved on 18 plates, and survives in just nine known copies. It followed America a Prophecy of 1793.

During autumn 1790, Blake moved to Lambeth, Surrey. He had a studio at the new house that he used while writing what were later called his "Lambeth Books", which included Europe in 1794. Like the others under the title, all aspects of the work, including the composition of the designs, the printing of them, the colouring of them, and the selling of them, happened at his home. Early sketches for Europe were included in a notebook that contained images were created between 1790 until 1793. Only a few of Blake's works were fully coloured, and only some of the editions of Europe were coloured.

When Europe was printed, it was in the same format as Blake's America and sold for the same price. It was printed between 1794 and 1821 with only 9 copies of the work surviving. The plates used for the designs were 23 x 17 cm in size. In addition to the illuminations, the work contained 265 lines of poetry, which were organized into septnearies.Henry Crabb Robinson contacted William Upcott on 19 April 1810 inquiring about copies of Blake's works that were in his possession. On that day, Robinson was allowed access to Europe and America and created a transcription of the works. An edition of Europe for Frederick Tatham was the last work Blake produced, and "The Ancient of Days" was completed three days just prior to his death.

The book is prefaced by an image known as "The Ancient of Days", a depiction of Urizen separating light and darkness. The poem begins with a description of the source for the vision:

The poem then explains that it is about:

The poem describes the creation of the serpent:

The poem concludes with Los calling his sons to arms:

Europe, like many of Blake's other works, is a mythological narrative and is considered a "prophecy". However, only America and Europe were ever given that title by Blake. He understood the word not to denote a description of the future, but the view of the honest and the wise. The vision within the poem, along with some of the other prophecies, is of a world filled with suffering in a manner that is connected to the politics of 1790s Britain.

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