The English Short Title Catalog Entry for Lanyer's Publication

ESTC System No.   006179972
ESTC Citation No.   S108278
Author - personal   LinkLanyer, Aemilia.
Title   LinkSalue Deus Rex Iudæorum. Containing, 1 The Passion of Christ. 2 Eues apologie in defence of women. 3 The teares of the daughters of Ierusalem. 4 The salutation and sorrow of the Virgine Marie. With diuers other things not vnfit to be read. Written by Mistris Æmilia Lanyer, wife to Captaine Alfonso Lanyer seruant to the Kings Majestie.
Variant title   LinkSalve Deus Rex Judæorum
Publisher/year   LinkAt London : printed by Valentine Simmes for Richard Bonian, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the Floure de Luce and Crowne, 1611.
Physical descr.   [116] p. ;  4o.

This tells us that the whole work, Salve Deus Rex Judeorum, contains multiple parts arranged by their author to be read in sequence.  Note that the dedicatory poems are not even mentioned, although they take up many pages at the head of the edition.  The author is identified by name and by her married status to a (named) king's servant, which serves the same authority-generating function as Lady Mary Wroth's 1621 edition's identification of her connections to the powerful Sidney family.  Click here to see an image of the title page.

        The physical description tells us that it consists of 116 unnumbered pages, and that is set in quarto (4o, four pages per sheet), a relatively cheaper way to print the book than to set it in folio (two pages per sheet).  To learn more about how type was set to print books in the hand-press era (1451-1800), click here.  The ESTC holdings list records nine surviving copies with two slightly different title pages, including two copies held at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.  The two title pages and numerous but not innumerable surviving copies suggest that the printer ventured a fairly substantial run, perhaps 250-1000 copies, of a book by a non-noble, first-time author.  What evidence in the text or in your understanding of Lanyer's readership might explain this, and what might that mean in our survey of English literature from medieval to modern times?