Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, 1603 - binding front board
A binding contemporary with Shakespeare, with its owner's blind-stamp mark, dated 1603.
The plain leather boards of this volume are the original binding created for its first owner, whose personal ...
Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, 1603 - p. A2r.
An translator's dedication in a Shakespeare sourcebook.
In addition to the simpler statement of dedication John Florio wrote a fulsome dedicatory letter to the Countess of Bedford and her mother, Lady ...
Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, 1603 - Sonnet to the Countess of Bedford,p. A4r.
Dedicatory verses to a noble patron of Shakespeare's contemporary.
As well as a dedicatory letter, John Florio’s translation of Montaigne's Essays also included dedicatory verses to his patron ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - binding view
A notable binding contemporary with Shakespeare.
A royal coat-of-arms was stamped in gold on this volume in the seventeenth century. The same gilded ownership coat-of-arms adorns the back as the front ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - binding, front board
The front board of a Shakespearian sourcebook.
The original owner of this book probably purchased it from the printer, a friend of William Shakespeare, Richard Field, or from his publisher Thomas Wight. ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - detail, p. A4r.
The translator's notes 'To the Reader' of a Shakespeare sourcebook.
Sir Thomas North, writing in January 1579, attached a ‘Foreword’ to the readers of his translation of Plutarch’s ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - detail, printer and publisher imprint
The imprint of Shakespeare’s fellow Stratfordian.
Richard Field, who was two years older than Shakespeare, was son of Henry Field, a Stratford tanner. In September 1579, at the age of seventeen ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - fore-edge title
An Elizabethan identification of a Shakespearian sourcebook.
An early owner of this volume stored his books in the same way as many of his contemporaries, with the fore-edge facing outwards, rather ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1603 - title page, printer's device
A printer’s ornament known to Shakespeare.
Each Elizabethan printer used a personal ‘device’ on the title page of his work. Richard Field, the printer who came from Stratford, used ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1612 - dedication detail, p. A3r.
The translator's dedication of a Shakespeare edition repeated in a later edition.
In his dedication to Queen Elizabeth, Sir Thomas North recognized her especial interest in the classics. He called ...
Plutarch, The lives of the noble Grecians and Romaines, 1612 - ornamental headpiece above dedication, p. A3r, detail.
The translator's dedication to Shakespeare's queen.
Above the translator’s dedication the printer, Richard Field, placed a decorative woodcut with a central figure playing the lute, as the Queen ...
Raphael Holinshed, The... Chronicles, 1587 - binding back board detail
The craft of the bookbinder in Shakespeare’s time.
Ornamental tools, which had a metal rolling piece were heated over hot charcoal, and then used to decorate the leather ‘blindly’ ...
Raphael Holinshed, The... Chronicles, 1587 - binding view
Books for Shakespeare’s library use.
Large folio volumes such as this were frequently kept in college libraries, or libraries in great houses, often chained to the reading desks. Although the ...
Raphael Holinshed, The... Chronicles, 1587 - binding, front board.
An ornamented binding on a large ‘folio’ volume of Shakespeare's time.
This copy of the enlarged edition of Holinshed's Chronicles has its original leather binding which covers heavy wooden ...
Raphael Holinshed, The... Chronicles, 1587, Printer's ornament, vol. 3, p.A3r, detail..
A Printer's header ornament on a Shakespeare sourcebook.
The printer’s ornaments in many Elizabethan books have elaborate detail. In this volume hunters with their dogs confront a bear while ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Animals woodcut, p.81r.
An ornamental woodcut, on a text contemporary with Shakespeare.
Among the many woodcut ornaments in Richard Day’s book of prayers is a distinctive group of animals which include a mythical unicorn, ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Bear and ragged staff woodcut. Detail, p.84r, Y4r.
Printer's border ornament with bear and ragged staff, symbol of Shakespeare's county.
The chained bear and its ragged staff were part of the emblem of the earls of Warwick, and remain to this day, ...
Richard Day, A Booke of Christian prayers..., 1581 - Printers woodcuts, details. p.90v
The hand-press was well-known to Shakespeare.
In the 1580s when William Shakespeare came to London the Stationers' Company had been established for thirty years, since 1557, and it attempted to control ...