The faerie qveene, disposed into XII. bookes, : fashioning twelue morall vertues
The Faerie Queene is an epic poem by Edmund Spenser, printed in London in 1609 by H.L. for the publisher Mathew Lownes, here seen in a later binding by Joseph Zaehnsdorf. Its pictures are small Renaissance-style woodcut ornaments: a heraldic panel of crowned lion and dragon supporters, a grotesque beast with a spear beside a vase of flowers, and a grotesque eagle among fruiting vines. A designer could take from them the compact border and frame devices, interlocking strapwork and symmetrical heraldry suited to period-style title pages.
