ID 1129741
Lot 123 | The Faerie Queene: The Shepheard's Calendar: together with the other works of England's Arch-Poët
Estimate value
$ 2 000 – 3 000
The first collected edition of Spenser’s poetry, later issue. Spenser described his epic romance as a poem "cloudily enwrapped in Allegorical devises." Combining Italian influences such as Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso with native British myths and legends, he produced the paradigmatic poem of the English Renaissance. Its multi-layered and often enigmatic symbolism has captivated and puzzled readers for centuries.
Regarding the collected works, according to Johnson, "in no case were these editions printed as a unit. Instead, they were made up by issuing as a single volume a number of separate sections." Thus the bibliography is complex, with different parts reprinted in numerous issues as needed and recombined in various ways. The present volume contains the first edition of Mother Hubberd's Tale, only included after the first issue of the whole work, with a title page dated 1613; the title page of part 2 of Faerie Queene is also dated 1613 and the colophon dated "16012." Johnson, F.R., Critical Bibliography of the Works of Edmund Spenser, 19; Pforzheimer 972.
Folio (291 x 185mm). Title in woodcut border, part titles and colophons with woodcut devices, woodcut head- and tail-pieces, small illustrations at head of chapters of the Shepherd's Calendar (final leaf neatly remargined; dampstaining mostly confined to bottom edge, a little worming in lower margin at end, browning to some parts). Contemporary gilt-stamped calf with central gilt lozenges (joints splitting but holding, stained). Provenance: Rev. R. Dibben (armorial bookplate).
| Artist: | Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599) |
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| Artist: | Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599) |
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| Address of auction |
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