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The Collation

The Collation

Research and Exploration at the Folger

The Collation is a gathering of useful information and observations from Folger staff and researchers. Read more about this blog

A transcriba... what?
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A transcriba... what?

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Author
Paul Dingman

The typical first awkwardly formed question is, “A transcriba…what, wait, what is it, again?” (Answer: “Transcribathon, an event running from noon to midnight in which we transcribe and encode manuscripts, the very first experimental event of its kind for Early Modern…

Mezzotint!
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Mezzotint!

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Author
Erin Blake

Simran Thadani’s wild guess for the December Crocodile Mystery, backed up by Martin Antonetti and Deborah J. Leslie, is our winner. This month’s image is a close-up of the lower right edge of a mezzotint engraving. The lines that look…

“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: December 2014
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“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: December 2014

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Author
The Collation

Another new month, another new crocodile mystery! What manner of thing is this? Please leave wild guesses, informed opinions, witty remarks, and so on, in the Comments section. All will be revealed later this week (or sooner, depending on how…

How the "Mastiffs" reached the Folger
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How the "Mastiffs" reached the Folger

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Author
Sarah Hovde

In June 1878, the novelist Anthony Trollope and a dozen of his friends boarded the yacht “Mastiff” in Scotland for its maiden voyage, a trip to Iceland. They stayed just over a week, but the episode provided Trollope with enough…

So much for goats, or, cute creatures in coats of arms
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So much for goats, or, cute creatures in coats of arms

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Author
Heather Wolfe

John Guillim’s partial manuscript draft of A Display of Heraldry (ca. 1610) was featured in our recently closed exhibition, “Symbols of Honor: Heraldry and Family History in Shakespeare’s England.” We showed an opening depicting “Fishes skynned” and “Crusted fishes” and compared…

Research round-up
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Research round-up

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Author
Abbie Weinberg

One of the best bits of my job as a reference librarian here at the Folger (oh, who am I kidding? They’re all “best bits”) is answering research questions from scholars who are not on site. I really enjoy being…

Folger Tooltips: The limits of "Set Limits" in Hamnet
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Folger Tooltips: The limits of "Set Limits" in Hamnet

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Author
Erin Blake

Following up on last month’s post about the new-and-improved “Limit location” in Hamnet, the one that lets you quickly limit your search to one of four locations, including just Vault material, I thought I should say a few words about the limits…

Dalí as you like him
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Dalí as you like him

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Author
Sarah Werner

The change of pace in this month’s crocodile mystery is thanks to Salvador Dalí. Surely you, like our commenters, recognized those elongated legs. And if I’d shared the companion image, you’d have guessed that immediately as well. Dalí’s backdrop for…

"What manner o' thing is your crocodile?": November 2014
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"What manner o' thing is your crocodile?": November 2014

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Author
The Collation

Perhaps the question for this month’s mystery is less about crocodiles and more about elephants: What manner of thing is this and what is it doing at the Folger Shakespeare Library? It’s been a while since we’ve done a mystery…

Ohel or Dod? Ideal copies and messy print
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Ohel or Dod? Ideal copies and messy print

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Author
Kathleen Lynch

When is a repair to a title page more like a clue to a bibliographical puzzle? detail of an altered title page This question has intrigued me since, some years ago, I first consulted a Folger copy of John Rogers’s…

A carousel of tragedy
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A carousel of tragedy

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Author
Sarah Werner

We are used to thinking of productions of Shakespeare’s plays as creating new works of art that demonstrate the vitality of the centuries-old drama. But in the right hands, books can achieve the same effect. Emily Martin’s The Tragedy of…

19th-century faces in a 16th-century manuscript
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19th-century faces in a 16th-century manuscript

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Author
Heather Wolfe

A mother and her two daughters unexpectedly greet you when you open the binding of Folger MS V.a.174. albumen print of a mother and two daughters affixed to the front pastedown of Folger MS V.a.174, a 1576 manuscript of the…

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