The Collation

Research and Exploration at the Folger

Book Stamps

September 4, 2019 | By Caroline Duroselle-Melish

Many thanks for your guesses. What you see in this picture is the verso of a title page leaf. The stamp at the top of the picture is indeed the one of the Basel Public Library. The coat of arms beneath it depicts the arms of the Gufer von Reinhardsberg family from Bamberg, active at least until the early 18th century.… Continue Reading

Summer Retrospective: Deciphering Signature Marks

August 20, 2019 | By The Collation

It seems appropriate to finish up our summer retrospective series with one of the earliest (and perennially most popular) posts. Whether it’s a back-to-basics refresher for you or an answer to the question you’ve been asking yourself, Deciphering Signature Marks is a must-read for all of our followers. We hope you’ve enjoyed this foray into some of our previous posts. There is so much great content on this blog, the results of hundreds of hours of research and writing by our staff and guest authors, and we hope you’ll keep exploring it on your own, as well as enjoying the new content we continue to post.… Continue Reading

Summer Retrospective: Uncut, unopened, untrimmed, uh-oh

August 13, 2019 | By The Collation

It seems fitting that with last week’s retrospective post being all about paper, this week we should turn to the age-old question: just what do you call it when a book still has pages joined together (aside from “difficult to read”)? Learn the answer in Uncut, unopened, untrimmed, uh-oh.… Continue Reading

Launching Global Environmental History: Dr. Thomas Short on Air and Diseases in 1749

August 8, 2019 | By Guest Author

A guest post by Ruma Chopra It took the English doctor Thomas Short eighteen years to publish his nearly 1000-page assessment of the relationship between climates and diseases. Published in 1749, his two-volume history, A general chronological history of the air, weather, seasons, meteors, &c. in sundry places and different times, more particularly for the space of 250 years, together with some of their most remarkable effects on animal (especially human) bodies, and vegetables (Folger 203- 254q) correlates astronomical and climatic conditions to a variety of distempers and diseases in various parts of the world by placing hundreds of scattered episodes in one chronological sequence.… Continue Reading

Summer Retrospective: All About Paper

August 6, 2019 | By The Collation

One of the most important physical aspects of our collection is the very paper on which the books, manuscripts, and drawings were created. Unsurprisingly, we’ve had quite a few posts on this topic! This week, we invite you to take a look at some of them: Learning to “Read” Old Paper—what’s the difference between laid and woven paper anyway? Find out!… Continue Reading