Picturing Spenser: Ruth Samson Luborsky on The Shepheardes Calender

This essay revisits “The Illustrations to The Shepheardes Calender,” a study by Ruth Samson Luborsky that appeared in the second volume of Spenser Studies. Although it forms something of a diptych with her essay in the first volume, “The Allusive Presentation of The Shepheardes Calender,” this second foray earned its place in the canon of Spenser criticism by insisting that Spenser designed the woodcuts for the Calender. This contemporary reflection positions her work as a harbinger for today’s studies of Spenser’s material texts, editorial history, and readership, as well as a rich text from which to consider how we think about Spenser’s material poetics.