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provenance

How an 18th-century clergyman read his Folio
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How an 18th-century clergyman read his Folio

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Caroline Duroselle-Melish

The Folger Shakespeare Library has never acquired another copy of a Shakespeare Folio since the Folgers’ time—until now. We recently added number 38 to our collection of Fourth Folios (S2915 Fo.4 no.38). Published in 1685, this was the last 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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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…

When is an inscription not an inscription?
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When is an inscription not an inscription?

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Author
Sarah Werner

Two folks identified the key elements of this month’s crocodile mystery in their comments: Misha Teramura correctly noted that the inscription in the middle of the page—“pp. 184-190 refer to the progress of religion westward toward America”—refers to George Herbert’s…

Identifying a leather bookplate
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Identifying a leather bookplate

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Sarah Werner

As became clear in the robust conversation around this month’s crocodile mystery, what we’re looking at is a leather bookplate—a circular, good-tooled leather bookplate stamped with the initials “E. H.” and a rose. While the object itself might have been…

An alter'd case: An annotated copy of The Roaring Girl
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An alter'd case: An annotated copy of The Roaring Girl

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Victoria Myers

A guest post by Victoria Myers The marks in the book The reason that I found the Folger Shakespeare Library’s copy of The Roaring Girl especially interesting is because it is completely marked up. Most of these marks are corrections…

A new copy of Foxe's Actes and Monuments
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A new copy of Foxe's Actes and Monuments

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Georgianna Ziegler

The Folger Shakespeare Library already has two copies of John Foxe’s Actes and Monuments, published in 1570, so why would we want another, especially as it is only volume 1, of a two-volume set? The answer provides a good example…

Armorial bindings
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Armorial bindings

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Sarah Werner

The reveal to this month’s crocodile mystery isn’t much of a reveal; both John Overholt and Philip Allfrey posted the answer in last week’s comments. It’s the stamp that George Granville Leveson-Gower, the 1st Duke of Sutherland (1758-1833) used in…