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Books

Books in the Folger collections
Announced in 1622: A book now known as the First Folio
Two children look at an open First Folio enclosed in a clear case.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Announced in 1622: A book now known as the First Folio

Posted
Author
Greg Prickman

Greg Prickman explains how news of the 1623 book we now call the  First Folio appeared a year earlier, on the occasion of a trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

Acquiring the Vincent First Folio: A Bibliophilic Drama in Two Parts (Part 2)
Written receipt for the purchase of the First Folio. There is a red postal stamp.
Collation

Acquiring the Vincent First Folio: A Bibliophilic Drama in Two Parts (Part 2)

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Author
Sara Schliep

Part 2 of the thrilling story about how Henry Folger acquired the Vincent-Sibthrop copy of the First Folio.

Acquiring the Vincent First Folio: A Bibliophilic Drama in Two Parts (Part 1)
Handwritten telegram message on lined paper
Collation

Acquiring the Vincent First Folio: A Bibliophilic Drama in Two Parts (Part 1)

Posted
Author
Sara Schliep

Did you ever wonder how Henry Folger acquired the copy of the First Folio that he considered “the most precious book in the world”? Wonder no more. Join Folger Archivist Sara Schliep on a two-part saga spanning over a decade and an ocean, both literal and figurative. Here is part 1 of the tale.

Venice paper, bacon, and quiet luxury
Collation

Venice paper, bacon, and quiet luxury

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Author
Heather Wolfe

Why is there a picture of cooking bacon on this blog? Read on to find out what Heather Wolfe learned about Venice paper, early modern experimentation, and bacon.

Experiences of Captivity in the Books of John Smith
Collation

Experiences of Captivity in the Books of John Smith

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Author
Adrian Finucane

Folger Fellow Adrian Finucane explores issues of captivity in John Smith’s writing.

"What’s in a name?" That which we call [primitive] by any other word...
Collation

"What’s in a name?" That which we call [primitive] by any other word...

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Author
Eva Rocha

Artist Eva Rocha’s multimedia work investigates processes of dehumanization and in this post she looks at early colonial depictions of “Original Peoples”.

A Master Tailor’s Manual
An image of a single page of a book with a small block of text on the left in Spanish and an image of three men, two sewing and one using a compass and a ruler.
Collation

A Master Tailor’s Manual

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Author
Abner Aldarondo
The art of dying
Image of title page for Christopher Sutton's Disce mori: learn to die.
Collation

The art of dying

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Author
Eileen Sperry

a guest post by Eileen Sperry For early modern English Christians, dying was an art form. The bestseller list of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, had there been one, would have been topped by some of the period’s many…

Caught Inky Handed: Fingerprints of Practitioners
Collation

Caught Inky Handed: Fingerprints of Practitioners

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Author
Caroline Duroselle-Melish

Thank you for your suggestions regarding these fingerprints. They are, indeed, the marks of two different fingers with different patterns. I tend to think, like Elizabeth, that they are the marks of a middle finger and an index or a…

A Blessing to Booksellers
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A Blessing to Booksellers

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Author
Rachel B. Dankert

In her 1616 mother’s advice book, The Mothers Blessing, Puritan author Dorothy Leigh exhorts her readers: “Teach a childe in his youth the trade of his life, and he will not forget it, not depart from it when he is…

Romeo and...
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Romeo and...

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Author
Elizabeth DeBold

Thanks for our many eagle-eyed readers and your attention to this month’s Crocodile Post. As several folks guessed, this is a French parody of Romeo and Juliet called Roméo et Paquette, published in 1773. This item is a new acquisition, purchased in…

A Conservation Intern’s Observations on STC 2608
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A Conservation Intern’s Observations on STC 2608

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Author
Kevin Cilurzo

A guest post by Kevin Cilurzo (with particular thanks to Adrienne Bell) For a conservator, to disbind and rebind a book is a rare chance to study and understand its binding structure. With broken sewing and loose detached leaves, Folger…

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