ASHENDENE PRESS. SPENSER, Edmund. ~ The Faerie Queene disposed into Twelve Books Fashioning XII Morall Vertues.
One of 180 copies on Batchelor 'knight in armour' paper, (there were also 12 copies printed on vellum). Printed in double column in red, blue and black in Subiaco type with large initials printed in red and blue designed by Graily Hewitt, who also designed the opening words for each Booke. The Greek type which appears occasionally designed by Selwyn Image for Macmillan. Folio, original brown cowhide backed ivory vellum sides bound in the WH Smith bindery with their monogram in blind on the lower turn-ins, gilt lettering on spine.
Very good with only a little rubbing to spine and headcaps and some spotting to endpapers and edges, slight offset from the turnins. Prospectus tipped onto the front free endpaper and booklabel of Philip Duschesnes, the New York dealer.
The paper for these volumes is larger in size than any used before at the Press and in the Bibliography Hornby begs any future binders to leave it alone and not trim it down thus spoiling his carefully designed proportions of the margins.
The Faerie Queene, written in the 1590s by Spenser is one of the longest poems in the English language. It follows Arthurian knights in the examination of 12 moral virtues and was a huge success in its time owing to Elizabeth I's political approval of its noble and virtuous teachings and its celebration of the Tudor dynasty. Quite a text to undertake. It took Hornby nearly two years to print it.