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
V and U in 17th-century Flemish book titles
For many years bibliographers in Flanders have been speculating about the use of “V” in the place of “U” on title pages of early modern hand-press books. For the occasion of this blog post, I decided “TO TAKE VP THE GAVNTLET” in…
An example of early modern English writing paper
The crocodile posted on Friday was correctly identified by Philip Allfrey as a watermark of Queen Elizabeth’s arms encircled by the Garter. In his comments, Mr Allfrey provided a useful account of how he identified the watermark and the letter…
“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: February 2014
Today’s crocodile mystery comes from the manuscript collection. What is it? What does it depict? Why might it be interesting or significant? Answers to any or all of these questions most welcome. What am I? Click to enlarge.
See the 1960s Royal Shakespeare Company, now at the Folger!
Want to see Patrick Stewart in his mid-20s? How about photos of set design models for Peter Hall’s 1959 Coriolanus, starring Laurence Olivier? Come see the Folger’s newly acquired Gordon Goode Collection of Royal Shakespeare Company photographs. Left: Ian Holm…
An evolution of cataloging at the Folger, from 1932 to today
Although the Folger Shakespeare Library officially opened on Shakespeare’s birthday in 1932 and readers began arriving at the Library in early 1933, it wasn’t until later that the idea of a proper card catalog for readers’ use was introduced. For…
The use of paragraph marks in early 16th-century Flemish editions
(UPDATE January 23: In editing this post, I inadvertently inserted an inaccurate use of “Dutch” as a modifier in the post title; I’ve now updated it to the correct “Flemish”. SW.) The Folger Shakespeare Library has very strong Continental holdings.…
Back-to-back reading
As commenters bruxer and Lydia Fletcher worked out, January’s crocodile mystery showed a detail of the head of a dos-à-dos binding, with a covered board running down the middle separating two gauffred text blocks. The full picture makes it a bit…
"What manner o' thing is your crocodile?": January 2014
A new month, a new year, a new mystery for you to enjoy! This month’s crocodile might be immediately recognizable to some of you, but perhaps not to others, and sometimes it’s fun to take a fresh look even at…
Happy New Year's "E"
Perpetual calendars in the early modern period relied on knowing a given year’s “dominical letter” or “Sunday letter”—the letter corresponding to the date of the first Sunday in January where A=1, B=2, C=3, and so on. This New Year’s Eve, we’re…
Unbidden guests, moldy pies, and other holiday drama
As we enter the holiday season and look forward to spending time with our families and friends, it is of course always useful to take a moment to reflect upon the antics of other people’s families. Even better if those…
A look back at our 2013
Here on The Collation, it’s been a busy 2013. Today’s post will be our 68th of the year, and as of December 15th, we’d racked up 46,012 visits from 33,411 unique visitors, producing 67,361 pageviews this year. *phew* It’s gratifying that we…
Q & A: Jaime McCurry, National Digital Stewardship Resident
This year, the Folger is one of ten host institutions for the National Digital Stewardship Residencies, a nine-month grant-funded program created by the Library of Congress and the Institute of Museum and Library Studies. The NDSR program, in their own…