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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

Looking through the hole in a torn-open letter
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Looking through the hole in a torn-open letter

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Author
Erin Blake

Well, I thought the January 2017 Crocodile Mystery was going to be a tricky one, but Misha Teramura not only identified the phenomenon correctly (an endorsement written across the hole created when an early modern letter was torn open at the wax seal),…

"What manner o’thing is your crocodile?": January 2017
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"What manner o’thing is your crocodile?": January 2017

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Author
The Collation

For this month’s Crocodile Mystery, have a look at the handwriting and discoloration in this detail. What’s going on? Leave a reply in the Comments section to share your thoughts.

Thomas Nashe and the print shop: looking for clues in the archive
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Thomas Nashe and the print shop: looking for clues in the archive

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Author
Kate De Rycker

Guest post by Kate De Rycker This past September I spent a month exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library’s unique collection of books by someone who has fascinated me for a long time: the Elizabethan pamphleteer, Thomas Nashe (1567-c.1601). As a…

The Mysterious Case of Folger First Folio 33
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The Mysterious Case of Folger First Folio 33

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Author
Elizabeth DeBold

Shakespeare’s First Folio has been under the microscope for centuries, studied by historians, students of literature, and actors, as well as by those who are convinced that the works of the Bard are hiding something. As many of you may…

Sophisticating the First Folio
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Sophisticating the First Folio

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Author
Caroline Duroselle-Melish

This week we will continue our discussion of the First Folios currently on display in the Folger Shakespeare Library exhibition, First Folio! Shakespeare’s American Tour. This post will look at their “sophistication.” A “sophisticated” or made-up book is a defective…

Scissors inside books?
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Scissors inside books?

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Author
Heather Wolfe

The rusty outline we showed in last week’s Crocodile post is, as one of our responders, Giles Bergel, correctly guessed, from a pair of scissors. It appears in Folger First Folio number 58, in Henry IV, part 1 (pp. 50-51). This First Folio…

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: December 2016
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“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: December 2016

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Author
The Collation

Here is another ghostly residue for you to identify, for this month’s Crocodile Mystery: As always, leave your thoughts and guesses in the comments, and come back next week to find out the answer.

A Preview of What the New EMMO Website Will Offer
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A Preview of What the New EMMO Website Will Offer

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Author
Paul Dingman

Manuscripts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are going digital with added features for users! The launch of a beta website for Early Modern Manuscripts Online next month will provide encoded transcriptions to accompany manuscript images and metadata. The number of transcriptions…

"A triple badge in Coventry ribbon"
Sh.Misc. 1639 item 16
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"A triple badge in Coventry ribbon"

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Author
Sarah Hovde

When I retrieved Sh.Misc. 1639 from the shelf, I wasn’t sure what to expect from an item described on the catalog card as “Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration. Mementoes, tickets, programs…” Many of the components turned out to be fairly common–though no…

Folger Tooltips: Making the most of Hamnet's "Keyword Anywhere" search box
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Folger Tooltips: Making the most of Hamnet's "Keyword Anywhere" search box

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Author
Erin Blake

I used to hate Hamnet’s one-box “Basic Search”—the landing page you get when you click the “Search” tab at http://hamnet.folger.edu—but two things happened last Thursday to change this. What caused the change of heart? Read on. First, the Basic Search now defaults to “Keyword…

Spirit rapping and other things that go bump in the night
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Spirit rapping and other things that go bump in the night

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Author
Abbie Weinberg

This month’s Crocodile Mystery was a bit of a trick, rather than a treat (although hopefully this post will fulfill the treat aspect)—as far as I know, it really is just a fancy, decorated letter A. This is one of…

“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: November 2016
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“What manner o’thing is your crocodile?”: November 2016

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Author
The Collation

Welcome to the November Crocodile Mystery! Take a look at the image below and tell us, if you can, what it is and where it appears in our collection? As always, leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments below,…

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