19 April 2012
by Heather Wolfe
1 Comment
The Folger has recently acquired some interesting hybrid books; that is, books which consist of a mixture of thematically-connected printed, manuscript, and graphic material gathered from a variety of sources into a single binding. Sidney scholar and Folger reader Margaret … Continue reading
22 March 2012
by Heather Wolfe
0 comments
A few months ago I wrote about the joys of bringing together parts of an archive or collection that had gone astray, and provided three recent examples (Manuscript reunions). Well, it has happened again, but this time, the story is … Continue reading
26 January 2012
by Heather Wolfe and Georgianna Ziegler
5 Comments
Heather: The other day I received an email from the Conservation Lab with the subject line: “Annotation found on the verso of a lined frontispiece,” and a link to a couple of images, one taken under ultraviolet light. The conservators … Continue reading
15 December 2011
by Heather Wolfe
0 comments
Sometimes we come across a manuscript on the market that looks vaguely familiar, and sends us scrambling to Hamnet to figure out why. I was reminded of this last week when a bookseller offered us a “naval return for Queen … Continue reading
17 November 2011
by Heather Wolfe
2 Comments
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a period of major transition for English heralds, as the number of arms being granted increased exponentially, requiring improved methods of record-keeping. Their job was both ceremonial (ordering and keeping score at tournaments, ordering … Continue reading
20 October 2011
by Heather Wolfe
1 Comment
Three months ago the Folger was lucky enough to acquire a letter from Thomas Cromwell to George Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury. I say lucky because while roughly 350 letters from Cromwell survive, almost all of them are at either the … Continue reading
15 September 2011
by Heather Wolfe
6 Comments
Last Friday a much-anticipated package arrived at the Folger, containing a series of fifteen deeds describing the successive ownership of two adjacent properties on Fleet Street (“The King’s Highway”) in London from 1543 to 1735. Deeds can be tedious to … Continue reading