Gasparo Contarini, The commonwealth and government of Venice, 1599 - printer's ornament, p. 98, N4v.
A woodcut as decoration.
Woodcuts used to ornament Elizabethan texts were frequently ornate and often symbolic of ideas contained within the text with which they are associated. The cherubs with lute ...
Gasparo Contarini, The commonwealth and government of Venice, 1599 - title page.
A handbook on Venice for Shakespeare's contemporaries.
In 1599 Sir Lewis Lewkenor translated from the Italian Gaspar Contarini’s Della Republica et Magistrati de Venetia. This was the first book ...
Gasparo Contarini, The commonwealth and government of Venice, 1599 - To the Reader - p. A4r.
A Shakespeare contemporary travels to Venice.
Sussex born lawyer, Sir Lewis Lewkenor (c. 1556-1626) was remotely related to the Combe family of Stratford-upon-Avon, which might, perhaps, have resulted ...
George Tuberville, The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting, 1611 - A royal picnic, p.91.
A picnic for Shakespeare's royal patron.
Among the many engravings of huntsmen and their dogs that illustrate Turberville’s book of the chase, is this of the mid-day break for a meal with wine, ...
George Tuberville, The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting, 1611 - p. 35.
Hunting with dogs as in Shakespeare's plays.
Turberville’s handbook covers the training of dogs for hunting deer or hare. The woodcut illustrations show the kind of hunt Shakespeare would have ...
George Tuberville, The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting, 1611 - title page.
The care of hunting dogs in Shakespeare's time.
Turberville’s handbook was popular in Queen Elizabeth’s time and was reprinted after James I succeeded her on the English throne. The care ...
Guide Book on the History of All Saints Parish Church, Leamington Spa
A guidebook on the history of All Saints Parish Church, Leamington Spa, 1923.
Henri Estienne, A mervaylous discourse upon... Katherine de Medici…, 1575 - title page
Shakespeare may have owned this book.
Shakespeare purchased New Place, the largest house in the town of Stratford in 1597. On his death the property and most of its contents were inherited by his ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - garden detail on title page
Shakespeare set scenes in gardens such as this
Many scenes in Shakespeare’s plays are set in gardens. The formal lay-out of beds and hedges seen on this title-page engraving were familiar to ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - Apples are described, p.1275, detail.
The uses of apples: Shakespeare's references to fruit.
The Herball of John Gerarde explains how apple trees cost little to maintain, but produce a fine crop for everyone. The orchards of Kent and of ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - apples woodcut, p.1274, detail.
Apples, at the end of a meal are mentioned in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Gerarde’s herbal includes all kinds of fruit and trees as well as flowers and vegetables, many of which ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - Clove gilloflowers, p.472.
Carnations are the source for a Shakespearian argument in The Winter’s Tale.
Gerarde described carnations [pinks] with their ancient name ‘clove gillivors’ and Shakespeare’s ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - daffodils, p.108
b>Autolycus sings of daffodils in The Winter’s Tale
Autolycus, the former courtier turned pedlar, first arrives on the scene singing of the joys of spring: ‘When daffodils begin to peer... ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - gilloflowers (Wall Flowers), p.370.
The names of plants, discussed by Shakespeare.
The detail with which Gerarde describes plants, vegetables and fruit as well as flowers assisted contemporary herbalists and housewives with their gardens. ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - Goosetree [barnacles], detail, p.1391, detail.
Truth and Myth in Shakespeare's books of reference: The Barnacle Goose Tree.
Shakespeare includes, in The Winter's Tale (4.4), a similar myth to Gerarde’s tale of a barnacle-goose tree in the ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - Goosetree [Barnakle tree], p.1391.
The Elizabethan myth of the goose-tree.
Myth and legend, passed on by word of mouth until it was written down and becomes almost a fact, included the story that Gerarde records at the end of his herbal, ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - Goosetree described by Gerarde, p.1392.
Locations of plants known to Shakespeare's contemporaries.
Herbals and gardening books in Elizabethan England often describe the locations in which a plant may be found in the wild, as well as where ...
John Gerarde, The Herball, 1597 - hand drawn detail added to title page.
Garden detail replaced in an amateur way by an owner of a volume contemporary with Shakespeare.
This copy of the first edition of Gerade’s Herball has original hand-colouring of all the illustrations ...