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
Picture cataloging: new rules for old
Ta daaaa! I’m happy to introduce to you Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Graphics)—DCRM(G) for short—the latest publication in a suite of manuals that provides descriptive cataloging rules for primary source materials in special collections libraries. The official announcement will be made…
Don't try this at home (unless you are a professional brewer)
Here’s a little transcription exercise for our Crocodile readers: Folger MS V.a.429, fol. 29r. This is the title of a recipe in a book of culinary and medical receipts compiled between approximately 1675 and 1750 by a few generations of…
Bridging past and present
As I hope Collation readers know by now, the Folger is committed to openly accessible resources. Last week provided one example of the exciting results from such a scholarly pooling of knowledge. The story begins with a conference held at the…
"Wherein True Bliss is Buried": A Tragi-Comedy for the Prince of Poland, Brussels 1624
In the fall of 1960 an auction catalog was delivered to the Acquisitions Department of the Folger Shakespeare Library in which the following small typewritten notice was enclosed: The typewritten note from Sotheby’s The auction catalog was from Sotheby’s and…
Folger Exhibition Hall, circa 1935
With the Exhibition Hall closed for needed repairs this summer, I got to thinking about the various displays it has held over the years. Folger Shakespeare Library Exhibition Hall, circa 1935 in 1931, before the library opened (click to enlarge…
Q & A: Melanie Dyer, Research and Outreach Librarian
If you’ve been to our Reading Rooms this summer, you might have already had a chance to meet Melanie Dyer, our new Research and Outreach Librarian. But even if you don’t regularly make it in to the Library, you’ll soon…
Is that bleed-through?
In some ways, this image is a perfectly ordinary one (well, ordinary if it’s possible to think of an autograph manuscript of Mary Wroth’s important sonnet sequence Pamphilia to Amphilanthus as ordinary): Mary Wroth’s Pamphilia to Amphilanthus (fol. 65r) Heather Wolfe…
Margents and All: Thomas Milles between manuscript and print
Co-written by Heather Wolfe and Bill Sherman Thomas Milles’s motto, inscribed at the bottom of the title page in Columbia University’s copy of An Out-Port-Customers Accompt (STC 17935), as reproduced on EEBO. It appears in print on many of his…
Q & A: Eric Johnson, Director of Digital Access
Eric Johnson is the Folger’s new Director of Digital Access, heading the new Digital Media and Publications division. He has developed successful projects and programs for U.S. Department of State, the Washington Times, the World Bank, the state of Georgia,…
Measuring Hamlet and the golden section
It is an understatement to say that the layout of most books doesn’t show much daring, and that academic publications are among the most dull in this respect. But solid content and tasteful form do not necessarily exclude each other,…
Sizing books up
A couple of weeks back I posted some images with the aim of destabilizing some of our assumptions about what early modern texts look like. In the mix was an image of a “big” book followed by a “tiny” one.…
It's the details thnt matter
There were two odd things happening in last week’s crocodile mystery, which featured an opening from the first English edition of Nicolàs Monardes’s Joyfull newes out of the newe founde worlde (STC 18005). The first was the easier to spot, assuming you…