Collection highlights
See highlights from our collection relating to Shakespeare, Elizabeth I, and a range of topics: drama, literature, math, science, geography, food, fashion, and music.
About our collections
Looking for an overview? Learn more about the printed books, manuscripts, works of art, and performance-related items in our collections.
Shakespeare’s life
The Final Concord
This 1602 legal document confirmed Shakespeare’s title to the second-largest house in Stratford-upon-Avon, known as New Place.
Blackfriars Gatehouse Deed
This manuscript is Shakespeare’s copy of his deed of purchase of the Blackfriars gatehouse in 1613.
Shakespeare in print
Folger First Folio 1
An inscription from 1623 records this book as a gift from the First Folio’s printer, William Jaggard.
A censored Second Folio from Valladolid
An official of the Spanish Inquisition crossed out passages from Shakespeare’s play Henry VIII that use imagery evocative of the Virgin Mary to describe Elizabeth I.
Sangorski’s Songs and Sonnets
Alberto Sangorski’s manuscript book of Shakespeare’s songs and sonnets features beautiful calligraphy and gold-leaf illuminations, created in 1926.
Original art for the Hanmer edition of Shakespeare's works
These matched images from Measure for Measure are from a unique copy of the Hanmer edition held at the Folger, in which the original watercolor drawings have been inserted near the corresponding engravings.
Shakespeare in performance
Paul Robeson as Othello
Paul Robeson’s 1943 appearance as Othello had the longest run to that time of any Shakespearean production on Broadway.
Fanny Kemble costume design
This costume design was for popular early 19th-century British actress Fanny Kemble’s role as Desdemona in Othello.
Edwin Booth as Richard III
This costume was worn by 19th-century actor Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth, for his role as Richard III.
Picturing Shakespeare and his works
Francesco Zuccarelli: Macbeth meeting the witches
This 18th-century oil painting by Francesco Zuccarelli depicts a scene from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Henry Fuseli's Macbeth painting
This 1793 painting, known as Macbeth Consulting the Vision of the Armed Head, depicts Macbeth’s second encounter with the witches.
Umberto Romano: Shakespeare recites Shakespeare
This 1960s oil painting by the American artist Umberto Romano depicts William Shakespeare.
Roubiliac’s sculpture of Shakespeare
This 1757 terra-cotta sculpture by Louis François Roubiliac depicts Shakespeare in a pose of creative inspiration.
A binding with Shakespeare miniatures
Each of the painted miniatures on this 1928 Cosway binding represents a famous image, or supposed image, of Shakespeare.
Elizabeth I: Shakespeare’s queen
The Folger has the largest collection of Elizabeth I materials in North America.
Elizabeth I Sieve Portrait
George Gower’s 1579 portrait of Elizabeth I is the earliest of several paintings that show the queen holding a sieve.
Elizabeth I’s letter to Henry IV of France
In this personal letter, Elizabeth I gives advice to the French king about navigating tensions between Catholics and Protestants.
Leicester's letter to Elizabeth I
This letter to Queen Elizabeth I was written by Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester.
More royal connections
These books belonged to members of the British royal family.
Prince Henry’s “boke”
The boy who would become King Henry VIII wrote “Thys boke is myne Prince Henry” in this copy of Cicero’s writings from 1502.
Anne of Cleves's Book of Hours
Anne of Cleves gifted her husband, King Henry VIII, this illustrated prayer book.
A royal keepsake
This Catholic Book of Hours contains a handwritten inscription by Elizabeth of York, whose marriage to Henry VII launched the Tudor dynasty and ended England’s Wars of the Roses.
Drama and literature
Early English drama: The Castle of Perseverance
This 15th-century staging diagram is from a set of manuscripts known as the Macro Plays.
An early printed Chaucer: Canterbury Tales
Among the earliest printed books in the Folger collection is this 1477 edition of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, one of only about a dozen relatively complete copies that have survived.
First edition of Spenser
The Folger copy of Edmund Spenser’s Shepheardes Calender is one of only seven extant copies of the first edition, published in 1579.
Letter by John Donne
This letter, written by the 17th-century poet to his father-in-law, is one of 13 in the Folger collection, representing about a third of Donne’s surviving letters.
Math and science
Mathematical diagrams from 1482
This edition of Euclid’s Elements, printed in Venice in 1482, is considered the first full-length printed book with extensive mathematical illustrations.
A multilayered anatomy
Johann Remmelin’s Catoptrum Microcosmicum reflects the considerable advances in anatomical knowledge that took place in the Renaissance.
Maps, geography, and travels
A madcap guide for travelers
This 1611 book by Thomas Coryate has been called the first travel guide printed in England.
Ptolemy edition of 1513
When Ptolemy’s Geography was translated into Latin, it had a powerful impact on Renaissance cartographers.
Reporting on the New World
This engraving from a 1590 second edition of Thomas Hariot’s A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia depicts different methods of catching fish.
Religion and the Reformation
An early German Bible
This 1483 German Bible, often called the Korburger Bible, was among the early ones to be published in vernacular German.
Martin Luther sermon
This title page from a 1522 Luther sermon on “unrighteous Mammon” is a fine example of the Folger’s large collection of works from the Protestant Reformation.
The Book of Martyrs
John Foxe’s Actes and monumentes, more familiarly known as the Book of Martyrs, is fundamental to almost any study of the English Reformation.
Fashion, food, and music
Fashion in Jacobean times
These watercolor illustrations by an anonymous artist show the highly layered clothing of the period.
Sarah Longe’s recipe book
This book, compiled by a middle-class English woman in the early 1600s, freely mingles culinary and medicinal recipes.
Renaissance lute
This 1598 Italian lute was restored by Arnold Dolmetsch, a leading figure in the revival of early music performance at the beginning of the 20th century.
John Dowland: A song in four parts
This setting of a Fulke Greville sonnet, “Who ever thinks or hopes of love for love,” is from the 1597 first edition of English lutenist John Dowland’s First booke of songes.
Eye-catching books
The Trevelyon Miscellany
Thomas Trevelyon’s hand-drawn 1608 miscellany depicts a wide array of subjects, such as English and Scottish rulers, biblical stories, and embroidery patterns.
A “Foure-Footed Beaste”
Edward Topsell’s 1607 bestiary depicts grisly creatures, both actual and mythical.
An embroidered binding
One of the Folger’s most prized bindings, decorated with seed pearls and raised silver thread, holds a 1608 manuscript in the hand of the calligrapher Esther Inglis.
Esther Inglis: Virtuosic calligraphy
From the late 1500s until her death in 1624, calligrapher Esther Inglis created more than 50 beautifully crafted manuscript books, including this collection of poems.
A chained book
This volume from the 1490s, with its hand-wrought chain to secure it to a shelf, is one of a few existing examples of a chain binding.
A binding with Shakespeare miniatures
Each of the painted miniatures on this 1928 Cosway binding represents a famous image, or supposed image, of Shakespeare.
Life in London
Visscher’s View of London
The Globe theater is visible in this engraving by Claes Visscher, first issued in 1616.
A 16th-century market
This 1598 illustration shows Escheape Market, a meat market in London with butchers’ shops along both sides of the street.
A royal procession
This scene depicts the visit of a royal relative of England’s Charles I, but it also shows details of daily life in mid-1600s London.
More collection highlights
A fencing handbook
Fencing terminology from this manual by Vincentio Saviolo, an Italian fencing master who settled in London around 1590, appears in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
An Italian guide to war
This beautifully hand-colored book is a 1588 translation of Niccolò Tartaglia’s Quesiti et inventioni diverse, which offers practical advice on the technology of war.
Sir Walter Raleigh’s release
With this royal warrant, James I authorized his release from the Tower of London based upon the promise that Raleigh would voyage to the New World and return with gold.