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Launching Global Environmental History: Dr. Thomas Short on Air and Diseases in 1749
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Launching Global Environmental History: Dr. Thomas Short on Air and Diseases in 1749

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Ruma Chopra

A guest post by Ruma Chopra It took the English doctor Thomas Short eighteen years to publish his nearly 1000-page assessment of the relationship between climates and diseases. Published in 1749, his two-volume history, A general chronological history of the…

Summer Retrospective: Woodcut, engraving, or what?
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Summer Retrospective: Woodcut, engraving, or what?

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The Collation

If you’ve ever been confused by the differences between woodcuts, engravings, and etchings, clearly you’re not alone! This post by Erin Blake, from 2012, is perennially one of our most popular. So in case you missed it the first time…

"What's in a Name?" or, Going Sideways
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"What's in a Name?" or, Going Sideways

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Elizabeth DeBold

When, in Act 2 of William Shakespeare’s famous teen suicide play Romeo and Juliet, Juliet muses “hat’s in a name? That which we call a rose / y any other word would smell as sweet,”Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, Michael Poston,…

All the world and half a dozen lemons
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All the world and half a dozen lemons

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Lauren Working

A guest post by Lauren Working Letter from Thomas Wood to Richard Bagot, 10 October 1576, Folger MS L.a.987 (click for zoomable version) Thomas Wood’s 1576 letter to Richard Bagot begins conventionally enough. Wood was sending some artichoke “slips” with…

Portrait of a Young African Woman
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Portrait of a Young African Woman

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Alicia Meyer

A guest post by Alicia Meyer The Folger Shakespeare Library houses three etchings of African diasporic people by Wenceslaus Hollar. While we may never know the identities of the figures in these images, Hollar’s artistic choices direct how we see…

Drawn by Hayman, etched by Gravelot, preserved in Folger ART Vol. b72
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Drawn by Hayman, etched by Gravelot, preserved in Folger ART Vol. b72

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Erin Blake

For the June 2019 “Crocodile Mystery” we asked you to spot the differences between these two pictures: Frontispiece illustration for Two Gentlemen of Verona from Thomas Hanmer’s 6-volume edition of Shakespeare’s plays, published 1743-44: original drawing (A) and published print…

A Wild and Woolley Week
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A Wild and Woolley Week

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Before 'Farm to Table' team

A guest post by the Before ‘Farm to Table’ team This week the Before ‘Farm to Table’: Early Modern Foodways and Cultures team turned their collective attention to Hannah Woolley (or Wolley), a British woman writer who was among the…

Snakes! on a ... book?
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Snakes! on a ... book?

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Abbie Weinberg

“What is that?” someone asks, pointing to the corner of one of the books open for display. “This? Oh, it’s a book snake. Most useful object in the library!” I reply. This conversation happens once in nearly every book display…

To bind: Ligatures in Aldine Type
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To bind: Ligatures in Aldine Type

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Abbie Weinberg

Yes, indeed. As many of you quickly identified, each of the images in this month’s mystery post contain at least one ligature. In fact, all of the images are from a single set of type: the Aldine italic that was…

The Location of Plates in a Book
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The Location of Plates in a Book

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Caroline Duroselle-Melish

When consulting a book with plates (that is, inserted leaves printed separately from the text), it is best not to assume that they have been placed in the same location in all copies of the same edition nor that their…

One page, four inscriptions, three households
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One page, four inscriptions, three households

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Rebecca Laroche

A guest post by Rebecca Laroche I began transcribing Folger manuscript V.a.681 because I recognized from the dealer’s description the name of a family, the Shirleys, and its house, Staunton Harold; I had previously found another book owned by another…

British Book Illustrations
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British Book Illustrations

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Emily Wahl

Good news, picture-seekers! If you’ve ever tried to search Luna for a picture of something specific, you’ve probably noticed that relatively few digital images match one-to-one with their source descriptions. For example, although a keyword search for “dog” will bring…

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