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 families are over four hundred years old. And even better if their antics are described in English secretary or italic hand.… Continue Reading
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 have readers who enjoy our posts and that come to us repeatedly to learn what we have to share.… Continue Reading
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 words, “offers recent master’s program graduates in specialized fields—library science, information science, museum studies, archival studies and related technology—the opportunity to gain valuable professional experience in digital preservation.” The Folger is delighted to host Jaime McCurry as our resident digital steward from September 2013 through May 2014.… Continue Reading
For more than a year now I have been working with volunteers on the Flemish holdings in the Folger. In the course of this project, we came across a small pamphlet, an anonymous booklet printed in 1602 (Folger DH110 K1196 Cage). The text is a response to another pamphlet and it indicates neither a place of publication nor a printer. But the flyleaves used by the binder of this little book tell a nice little story about the bookseller’s scene in Mechelen in the beginning of the 19th century.… Continue Reading
As our two commenters on the last post sussed out, this month’s crocodile mystery is a detail from an almanac, the black “Swallow” overprinting the red “Dove” the names of authors of two different almanacs. Below is the full title page of the work in question, Swallow 1633. An Almanack for the yeare since the nativity of our Saviour MDCXXXIII Being the first after Bissextile or Leap-yeare, and from our Saviour’s passion 1600.… Continue Reading
Now that we’re back to our regular twice-weekly schedule of posts, it’s time to bring back our crocodile mystery series! As a refresher, the series posts a mystery item at the (approximate) beginning of each month, inviting speculations in the comments about what it is and what its significance might be. The following week one of our regular authors shares the reveal and explanation.… Continue Reading
