The Faerie Queene. Illustrated by Walter Crane

London, The Folio Society, 2011 Limited Numbered Edition 114/1000.. The gorgeous facsimiles are bound in 3 volumes : Each volume is bound in stunning white Nigerian goat skin blocked with a gilt design on cover and spine that is seductively sensuous to the touch. The volumes are housed on a sliding tray in a maroon toile vendome silk covered wooden case (31.8x23.6x20.6cm.), that is lined with maroon cloth. All three volumes are identically bound and gilt embossed except for the book number on the spine. Presented in a wooden slipcase covered in Tsarina Crush, with a sliding tray in the base for ease of use* In very good near fine condition. Near fine slipcase. Pages all clean and tight. An excellent limited edition copy. Books I & II 528 pages, books III & IV 516 pages, books V & VI 507 pages. It is printed on thick watermarked laid paper with gilt top page edges and white ribbon markers. Profusely illustrated with 88 large illustrations and 135 illustrative head and tailpieces by Walter Crane. 1,712 pages in total he sixteenth century was the golden age of English poetry. Edmund Spenser burned to create an English equivalent to Virgil’s Aeneid. Instead of lauding the Caesars, he would glorify Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen. Where Virgil connected Rome to the heroic past of Troy, Spenser would forge a link between Tudor England and the mythological age of King Arthur. The result was The Faerie Queene, a rich allegory which elevated Protestant virtues through the medium of a romantic, chivalric epic. Today the power of Spenser’s story and the beauty of his verse still live in ‘famous memory’.