Beyond National Boundaries: A Season of New Acquisitions, Part I

Today I’d like to talk about some books and prints acquired recently (since March 2023), which can now be consulted in the reading room. Items which are still being processed (as described in an earlier post by Heather Wolfe) will be discussed in the future.

Browsing through the list of recent purchases, I was struck by how we collect across themes that are addressed in books published across different countries. This, in a way, is not surprising: many concerns are shared, and books themselves travel and get translated. If books demonstrate shared interests and concerns beyond national boundaries, they also reflect the nature of the book trade.

Some of the subjects covered by early modern books and prints from this season of acquisitions include health and food, theater, street life, poverty, trade and enslavement, Western views on other parts of the world, relations between men and women, conduct books for women, women authors, readers, and printers, decorative arts, writing manuals and calligraphy and of course Shakespeare (see the full list in the second part of this post on Thursday).

These various subjects are already well represented in the Folger collections, but we are always interested in adding items that bring a new perspective and in acquiring books and prints by or about under-represented voices (see our collection development policy). Sometimes these voices appear only in a few pages of a book. We acquired acquiring Ambrozio de Salazar’s Spanish grammar for French students not only because it continues to develop Folger’s collection of grammars and multi-lingual manuals, but also because it includes several pages of biographical notes on the Spanish poet and teacher of African descent, Juan Latino, and a discussion on the presence and lives of Black Africans in late 16^th century Spain.

For decades now, Folger has collected books and manuscripts on and by women, but few of those pertain to Scandinavian women. Birgitte Thott’s Danish translation of the Roman philosopher Seneca was printed in Sorø, on the island of Zealand in Denmark. Thott was herself a philosopher, who dedicated her translation to women and included a chapter on why they should receive an education. The Dutchwoman Anna Maria Schurman wrote one of the epigrams praising Thott in the preliminary pages of the book, pointing to the transnational connections between learned women. Schurman was herself an accomplished engraver and scholar, and author of several treatises. A copy of her book defending women’s rights translated into English is in the Folger collections.

Another area where we try to expand the geographical scope of the books we acquire is in translations of Shakespeare’s work. This season of acquisitions has brought into our collections 19^th and early 20^th century translations of Shakespeare into Croatian, Slovenian (Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet), Slovak, and Romanian.  Translations are important for many reasons, one of which is that they often include “cultural translations” which can subtly alter parts of a text in revealing ways. We also added several texts to our Shakespeare Japanese collection, which is already quite strong.

Street life was a significant part of urban life in early modern Europe (perhaps more so than today when most of us spend the majority of our lives indoors). It was also a place where people from different social classes could meet and interact. A collection of 188 prints by the Parisian printmaker Nicolas Guerard includes scenes depicting life in the crowded urban center of Paris in the late 17^th century, with its many street vendors and risk of accidents.

To complement this collection of prints, we were fortunate to acquire several books on “street cries” or catchy texts shouted by street vendors to advertise their wares. One of these books printed around 1570 by a widow printer lists the different cries one could hear on the streets of Paris starting in the morning with those of wet nurses offering their milk for sale. Sometimes a cry could turn into a song. A small pamphlet recently acquired details the tunes of a street vendor of tobacco in Venice.

Lace pattern books are fascinating for their intricate designs and for how they were made and used. Model books for lacemakers, they were generally intended for women making lace as a pastime or for a livelihood. We are fortunate to have been able to make some significant additions to our collections and acquire the first pattern book written by a woman, known only by her initials ‘RM’. She may have been an itinerant lacemaking teacher selling her services and her book in various parts of Switzerland.

Another wonderful acquisition is a lace pattern book also authored by a woman, the Italian Elisabetta Catanea Parasole, who was the first woman to have her name printed on the title page of such book. Parasole designed the patterns, many made after other models, and most likely cut the woodblocks for her book.

By contrast, the German Rosina Elena Furst, whose book we also acquired recently, was solely responsible for the design of the patterns in her book, which were translated into prints by an engraver of her entourage.

Furst came from a Nuremberg family of artists. Her father, Paul Furst, was an art dealer and publisher; her mother was the daughter of the printmaker Balthasar Caymox who earlier had published a pattern book also in our collections. (See a blog post on another lace pattern book in our collection).

We collect not only books about lacemaking, we also collect embroidered books. The most recent one we acquired is unusual as it depicts a young married couple. Perhaps the bride is the one who made this embroidery and wrote in the book ‘Richd. Emerton Wotton Give him by mis Allin’ as a gift to her future husband.

Look out for more new acquisitions on Thursday!