Book Description

Abstract: This dissertation fills the critical void on the history of Spenser and his editions. Applying the critical methods of the History of the Book, I situate each of Spenser's editions published from 1569 through 1679 within the context of its contemporary print culture. I study each edition's physical makeup, typography, format, and production history. Additionally, I investigate the lives of the various printers, publishers, booksellers, and editors who had a hand in producing the books. From the evidence I collect, I construct arguments concerning Spenser's relationship with the printing trade, his readership, and his literary reputation. The first chapter examines Spenser's interactions with books and the book trade during his youth and how these interactions helped shape his literary career. The second chapter demonstrates how The Shepheardes Calender (1579) deviated from its Italian bibliographic model by substituting italic type with black-letter or "English" type. The choice of "English" type supported the book's promotion of the English language and literature. The third chapter argues that Spenser and his printer helped position The Faerie Queene (1590) within the epic tradition by imitating the appearance of contemporary editions of classical and Italian epics. The fourth chapter examines Spenser's first folio (1611-c.1625), demonstrating that it was not a monument to the author, as were contemporary folios, but rather a cheaply produced book sold in sections. The fifth chapter reexamines the manuscript and printing history of A View of the Present State of Ireland. The final chapter argues that for many seventeenth-century readers, Spenser's deliberately archaic language had grown too obscure, resulting in efforts to regularize his works. Spenser's literary reputation was momentarily rehabilitated in 1679, when, during a time in which reprints made up a large percentage of English books, Spenser's works returned to folio and set the stage for a minor eighteenth-century rebirth.