Spenser Archive Finding Aid
Folio Parts -> Letter to Raleigh, commendatory and dedicatory poems

The faerie queen: The shepheards calendar: together with the other works of England's arch-poet, Edm. Spenser: collected into one volume, and carefully corrected., 1611, BT1.25.13(1-4)

Title: The faerie queen: The shepheards calendar: together with the other works of England's arch-poet, Edm. Spenser: collected into one volume, and carefully corrected.
Repository: Oxford U New College
Shelfmark: BT1.25.13(1-4)
Published by: H[umphrey]. L[ownes]
Published for: Matthew Lownes
Published Location: London
Published date: 1611
Copynotes: In this copy the title page to the 2nd part is dated 1613. The text is in good condition and also the binding (17th/18th? century calf over boards sewn onto 3 supports with 2 additional false raised bands; pair of gilt fillets towards outer edges; pairs of gilt fillets above and below raised bands on spine; text edges sprinkled red; sewn onto end bands; repaired and rebacked). With pencil note on first free end leaf: 'This seems to be complete, but bound in wrong order. R.L.R.' With provenance inscription on title page, scratched out with ink and unread. This folio includes the following other works: The shepheards calendar has its own title page dated 1611. Prosopopoia has its own title page dated 1613. Colin Clouts come home againe has its own title page but undated Prothalamion has its own title page dated 1611. Amoretti and epithalamion has its own title page dated 1611. Epithalamion has its own title page dated 1611. Foure hymnes has its own title page dated 1611. Daphnaida.. has its own title page dated 1611. Complaints containing sundry small poems... has its own title page dated 1611. Teares of the muses has its own title page dated 1611. Muiopotmos has its own title page dated 1611 New College Librarian adds the following in correspondence on 5/26/2010: 1. Date on title page of 1st part of the Faerie Queene = 1611. [NS: ?] 2. There is no colophon in our copy, so I am wondering if we lack 2 folios and that the signatures should be Q6 and not Q4 - there is a catchword "Hobynoll" on Q4v but our copy goes straight to the title page for the 2nd part. 3. Stanza 1 on B3r is "Young Knight". 4. We do have the Letter to Raleigh and dedicatory sonnets bound into the back of the volume with paragraph signature of 7 leaves; the first line of text ends "Alle-" so is 1611. On 6/1/10 she adds: "My copy has the general title page, then dedication, then straight into the text of The First Booke of the Faerie Queene (ie. I am lacking the title page/A1 leaf). Our Faerie Queene (second part) is 1613 and the Prosopopia is also 1613." OLIS LCN: 16968816
Editionnotes: Three "reissues" of the 1609 edition bear a title page dated 1611. In this issue both parts are now actually in later settings. Part 1 still has the 1611 cancel title page and conjugate dedication of the first reissue (STC 23083.3, ESTC S123523). The text of part 1 has now been reset (the 1615 date conjectured by STC); B3r stanza 1 begins "Young Knight". Part 2 still has separate title page dated 1612 or 1613 (stop-press variants) and R3r catchword reads "And". Pagination and register are continuous. "An examination of a number of copies of the collected editions of Spenser's works commonly designated as the 1611 and 1617 folios, reveals that 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 which had been printed independently at periods often several years apart. A general title-page was prefixed to these issues of the collected works, bearing the date 1611 or 1617, but these dates are in many instances at variance with the component parts" -- cf. Johnson, p. 33. Ideally issued with STC 23086.3, 23093.5, 23077.3, and 23087, though some copies have parts from the 1617 editions. Each part catalogued separately, following the ESTC practice. In verse. Printer's name from STC. Part two has dated title page on R1, reading: "The second part of The faerie queene". Title page border: at the top, the crest of the Sidneys, a boar inside an oval compartment, with a bear on one side and a lion on the other; at the sides of the title, scrollwork and two pedestals, with a shepherd on the left and an Amazon on the right; at the bottom, a boar with sweet marjoram and the motto "Non tibi spiro" on a background of hills and a church. See McKerrow and Ferguson (M1989), no. 212. Ornamental borders surrounding the title of each canto, tail-pieces. Signatures: A6(-A1+pi2) B-P6 Q4 R-2H6. The last leaf is blank. Colophon on 2H5v, printed between head- and tail-pieces and with central printer's device (star surrounded by motto "os homini sublime dedit" and initials HD, originally of Henry Denham) reads: "London, printed by H.L. for Matthew Lownes."; it is dated: "16012." (i.e. 1612).
Record Author: checked by EJS 11/18/09; NS 5/28/10
Record Source: OLIS
Provenance Source:
Siglum: ONC_WKS_001
Collation Siglum:


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