Prothalamion: or a spousall verse made by Edmund Spenser

Prothalamion: or, A spousall verse made by Edmund Spenser. : In honour of the double mariage of the two honorable & vertuous ladies, the Ladie Elizabeth and the Ladie Katherine Somerset, daughters to the Right Honourable the Earle of Worcester, and espoused to the two worthie gentlemen, M. Henry Gilford and M. William Peter, Esquyers.

At London, Printed by H.L. for Martin Lownes. 1617 (1st printing 1596)

This is a short, and unique printing of a 1617 manuscript written by the seminal poet of the Tudor period. It celebrates the weddings of Ladie Elizabeth and Ladie Katherine Somerset; and one verse is quoted in T.S. Eliot’s “Wasteland.” Spenser’s influence on multiple subsequent significant poets is well documented. There is no cover for these leaves, but they are protected in an acid free plastic holder. On the title page a visible water spot exists, but the overall the condition, while fragile, is considered fine, and the existence of this copy is rare.