Assise of Bread [John Powell,editor] ,1608 - table of permitted weights of loaves, p.D2r.
Contemporary unrest provided ideas for the food riots in Coriolanus.
This page shows bakers at work above the official charts published for authorized legal weights of loaves of bread. In 1608 famine ...
Gasparo Contarini, The commonwealth and government of Venice, 1599 - 'Ayre of Venice', p.192
A source for Shakespeare’s knowledge of Venice.
Shakespeare’s tragedy of Othello begins in Venice, where the Moor is general of the Doge’s forces, and Desdemona is the daughter of ...
Gasparo Contarini, The commonwealth and government of Venice, 1599 - Book 5 - p. 125 detail.
The law of Venice inspired Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.
The trial in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (4,1, lines 15-36) of Antonio for non-repayment to Shylock of his loan, and ...
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 ...
Geoffrey Chaucer, Workes, 1602 - The Knight's Tale, Fol. 1, B1r.
The source for Shakespeare and Fletcher's play The Two Noble Kinsmen.
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in which pilgrims each contribute a story to entertain their fellow travelers, begins with the ...
Geoffrey Chaucer, Workes, 1602 - title page, p.a1r
A Shakespeare source in England’s mediaeval poetry.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s works, written in the time of Richard II, at the end of the 13th century, were known and admired by Elizabethan contemporaries ...
Geoffrey Chaucer, Workes, 1602 - The Booke of Troilus begins. Fol.143, Bb5r
Chaucer’s Troilus, a source for Shakespeare.
Shakespeare’s debt to the work of Geoffrey Chaucer is primarily to the poem Troylus & Creseyde, which is a direct source for the play of Troilus ...
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 ...
Giambattista Geraldi Cinthio, Hecatommithi, 1580 - Othello reference, vol.2, p.159.
Othello and Desdemona, Shakespeare’s Italian source.
The Hecatommithi, a collection of prose tales told by travellers sailing from Rome to Marseilles, includes the story of Disdemona [sic] and ...
Giambattista Geraldi Cinthio, Hecatommithi, 1580 - Othello reference, Vol.2, p.159 detail.
A Shakespeare source: The story of Othello.
Novella 7 in the third part of Hecatommithi is the story of an ensign who seeks revenge when his lust for 'Disdimona' is rejected. It was this tale that ...
Giambattista Geraldi Cinthio, Hecatommithi, 1580 - title page, Vol 2.
A source in Italian for Shakespeare.
It is not known whether Shakespeare ever travelled abroad, but several Italian sources for his plays had no published English translation at the time he was writing. ...
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, 1620 - Book 2, p.112r.
A ribald tale in a Shakespeare sourcebook
Shakespeare’s wide range of reading gave him a knowledge of many Italian writers and their work that he might potentially use in his plays, or poems. ...
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, 1620 -Book 2, title page
A Shakespeare source translated into English.
The two volumes of the Decameron in the English translation by John Florio came from the workshop of the same printer, Isaac Jaggard, who was responsible ...
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, 1625 - Book 1, p.107v
A source for Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well.
It is possible that Shakespeare may have been able to read, or knew the Decameron in its original Italian. His patron the Earl of Southampton employed ...
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Modell of witt [Decameron Book 1], 1625 - title page, p.A2r.
Italian stories provide source material
Giovanni Boccaccio is known chiefly for Decameron, which was written in 1353. This is a collection of a hundred tales told by ten people who have taken refuge ...
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 - 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 ...