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Folger Collections

'The Country Gentleman': A Forgotten Scandal and a Remarkable Discovery
Folger Spotlight

'The Country Gentleman': A Forgotten Scandal and a Remarkable Discovery

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Author
emma poltrack

Nell Gwynn offers a glimpse into the boisterous world of Restoration theater and the true story of one of its most famous heroines—but another compelling tale is that of ‘The Country Gentleman’ and its scandal.

Theatrical Bills and Receipts
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Theatrical Bills and Receipts

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Author
Abbie Weinberg

Folger manuscripts W.b.110 and W.b.111 are an oddly mis-matched pair. W.b.110 is nearly 46cm tall (almost 18 inches, for those playing along at home) and nearly 160 leaves, while W.b.111 is a good 10cm shorter and about a third the…

Folger collections in times of war
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Folger collections in times of war

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Author
Elizabeth DeBold

As you guessed, the image from last week’s Crocodile Post is a hand-drawn plan for a vault. This particular one was intended to store the Folger’s rare books during World War II. The hand-drawn plan is the work of Stanley…

Five Faces of Shakespeare
Miss C.B. Currie. Miniature, Cosway binding, 1928. James Boaden, An Inquiry into the Authenticity of Various Pictures. 1824. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Five Faces of Shakespeare

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Author
Esther Ferington

Among the many treasures of the Folger is a lavish “Cosway binding” that includes five unique miniatures by a 20th-century British artist, “Miss C. B. Currie,” based on the images from the book itself. One of the oddest to modern…

The Charming Mr. Stoker and the Monster Within
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The Charming Mr. Stoker and the Monster Within

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Author
Jason McElligott

A guest post by Jason McElligott Let me begin with a confession that may not endear me to many friends of the Folger: I don’t enjoy Shakespeare. To be completely honest, I find him hard work. Now, I am not…

Spanish Book Collection at the Folger
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Spanish Book Collection at the Folger

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Andres Alvarez-Davila

Andres Alvarez-Davila was a Dumbarton-Oaks intern at the Folger Shakespeare Library in 2017-2018. One of Andres’ projects was to determine the scope of the Spanish book collection at Folger, which is, for the most part, only searchable in the card…

What is an Aesopian fable in the Renaissance? The case of the Renaissance Catwoman
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What is an Aesopian fable in the Renaissance? The case of the Renaissance Catwoman

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Author
Liza Blake

A guest post by Liza Blake What is an Aesopian fable in the Renaissance? This post is about where our modern Aesopian fables come from, drawing on the Folger Shakespeare Library’s incredibly rich collections of animal fables. For more detail…

De Acupunctura: Willem ten Rhijne and Bringing Eastern Medicine to Europe
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De Acupunctura: Willem ten Rhijne and Bringing Eastern Medicine to Europe

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Author
Abbie Weinberg

I am continually in awe of the depth and breadth of knowledge that our readers possess. Y’all are truly excellent. Yes, the answer to the Crocodile Mystery is, as several people answered, a chart of the acupuncture points on the…

Tracing the transmission of medical recipes
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Tracing the transmission of medical recipes

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Author
Elisabeth Chaghafi

A guest post by Elisabeth Chaghafi A lot of early modern recipe books are eclectic compilations that reflect the interests or needs of the people who compiled them. Often they do not even separate between cookery and medical recipes but…

Minding the Gaps of Early Modern Drama
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Minding the Gaps of Early Modern Drama

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Heidi Craig

A Guest Post by Heidi Craig The history of early modern drama and theatre is punctured with gaps, unknowns, and absences. Over half of the estimated 3,000 professional plays performed before the closure of the theatres in 1642 have evaporated…

Hexed
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Hexed

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Author
Elizabeth DeBold

This month’s crocodile post asked our readers to think about some interesting designs appearing in and on our books. The first, appearing on the covers of Folger STC 11011 copy 2, are two slightly different designs with a central shape…

The mystery of the Shakespearian cartoons
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The mystery of the Shakespearian cartoons

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Author
Sarah Hovde

I first encountered this book three years ago, in 2015. Intrigued by its sparse catalog record, which at that point consisted of a cataloger-supplied title (“”), an estimated page count, and little more, I went down to the vault to…

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