Skip to main content
The Collation

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

Cracks in Etched Plates
Collation

Cracks in Etched Plates

Posted
Author
Caroline Duroselle-Melish

Originally, I was going to do a crocodile post about the binding of this architecture book by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau: Title page of Folger NA2625 .A63 1615 Cage Photo by Caroline Duroselle-Melish But after I thought about it, it…

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: March 2018
Collation

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: March 2018

Posted
Author
The Collation

This month’s Crocodile mystery is about an engraving. What do you think are the wavy lines on this print?

A New Acquisition: from the workshop of the Naval Binder?
Collation

A New Acquisition: from the workshop of the Naval Binder?

Posted
Author
Elizabeth DeBold

But upon the table—oh joy! the tailor gave a shout—there, where he had left plain cuttings of silk—there lay the most beautifullest coat and embroidered satin waistcoat that ever were worn by a Mayor of Gloucester. There were roses and pansies…

Polyglot Poetics: Transnational Early Modern Literature
Collation

Polyglot Poetics: Transnational Early Modern Literature

Posted
Author
Nigel Smith

A guest post by Dr. Nigel Smith I am writing a transnational history of early modern European literature. Our inherited history of the different early modern vernacular languages and their literatures was fashioned through the lens of the 19th-century and…

Was early modern writing paper expensive?
Collation

Was early modern writing paper expensive?

Posted
Author
Heather Wolfe

Many of us have repeated the assertion that writing paper in early modern England was expensive and scarce, but it has always bothered me. After hearing this fairly regularly in response to two common questions —“Why did people write on…

Announcing a New Folger-NACBS Short-Term Fellowship
Collation

Announcing a New Folger-NACBS Short-Term Fellowship

Posted
Author
Amanda Herbert

The Folger Institute and the North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS) are delighted to announce a new fellowship for scholars of the British world who are working on topics from the early modern period through to the present day.…

The Shakespeare stamps
Collation

The Shakespeare stamps

Posted
Author
Sarah Hovde

As several philatelically-astute readers quickly identified, the portrait of Shakespeare shown in last week’s Crocodile mystery is from a stamp!     These one shilling stamps were issued annually for a number of years at the turn of the 20th…

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: February 2018
Collation

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: February 2018

Posted
Author
The Collation

This month’s crocodile mystery is an example of one of our favorite things: Shakespeare portraits! What kind of item is this portrait of Shakespeare from, and what is significant about the item?

Books of Offices
Collation

Books of Offices

Posted
Author
Nicholas Popper

A guest post by Nicholas Popper The Folger has fourteen of an odd, unloved sort of manuscript that I’ve taken to calling “Books of Offices,” which exist in over a hundred versions throughout archives in the US and UK. Typically…

Book Reviews from the Royal Society
Collation

Book Reviews from the Royal Society

Posted
Author
Abbie Weinberg

Book reviews are a staple of many academic journals. They are a way to learn about new books in the field and to see what your fellow scholars think of them. And they’ve been around for a really long time.…

Bound to Serve: Apprenticeship Indentures at the Folger
Indenture of apprenticeship for John Holden
Collation

Bound to Serve: Apprenticeship Indentures at the Folger

Posted
Author
Urvashi Chakravarty

A guest post by Dr. Urvashi Chakravarty In 1616, the apprentice Robert Dering received the following letter from his master Thomas Style. Letter from Thomas Style to Robert Dering Dering was bound overseas with one Mr. Culpepper, and in his…

The Case Files
cs number featured for x.d.131
Collation

The Case Files

Posted
Author
Elizabeth DeBold Meaghan J. Brown

The problem with using IDs in mysteries is we also attempt to make them easy to discover. Elisabeth Chaghafi got it in one: this number belongs to X.d.131 and marks this item as one of Henry and Emily Folger’s original…

1 30 31 32 33 34 69