The English Short Title Catalog Entry for George Herbert's The Temple, ed. prin. 1633

ESTC System No.	006193717
ESTC Citation No.	S122349
Author - personal	Herbert, George, 1593-1633.
Title	The temple. Sacred poems and private ejaculations. By Mr. George Herbert.
Publisher/year	Cambridge : Printed by Thom. Buck, and Roger Daniel, printers to the Universitie, 1633.
Physical descr.	[8], 192, [4] p. ;  12o.

        Published in the same year as Donne's Poems, this duodecimo edition (12 pages printed per sheet in the press) also survives in many library collections, as do copies of the other two printings (with variants) of the same edition in the same year.  In all, there appear to be 16 printings and new editions of Herbert's poems published between 1633 and 1700, compared with nine of Donne's Poems.  Think of this as a sort of "best-seller list" of the era  What might the publication dates and publication frequencies in any one era tell you about English culture?

        Note that the title calls these "Sacred poems and private ejaculations," appearing to divide the more strictly religious poems from those in which the persona examines his mind or behavior.  How does this compare with the composition of Herrick's Hesperides and Noble Numbers or Donne's Poems?  Because, in this case, the shape of the whole collection was ordered by the poet, pay special attention to the sequence and juxtaposition of individual poems with their neighbors.  To see the published poems in order, as well as those from the Williams Manuscript and other sources, click here.