Speculation and Multiple Dedications in Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum

This essay analyzes how the dedications in Aemilia Lanyer’s Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (1611) not only mark the transition between the reciprocal gift economy of patronage and commercial book sales but also recommend the book to an emerging female readership. Salve Deus famously contains eleven prefatory poems and yet does not seem to have earned the author significant financial support. Lanyer’s dedications and title poem work together to market the book to a growing female readership, and publisher Richard Bonian’s decision to include these poems suggests that he thought these seemingly personal poems would increase the book’s appeal to a more general group of potential readers.