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Geoffrey Chaucer, Workes, 1602 - Family tree, p. A6r.

The author's family tree illustrates a Shakespeare sourcebook. In this finely printed edition the preliminary pages of Chaucer’s Works include a portrait of the author, surrounded by an elaborate ...

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 ...

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, 1634 - Ariodante and Dalinda, illustration pl.V, p.31.

Illustration for the story on which Shakespeare based a comedy sub-plot. The tale of Ariodante, and Ginevra impersonated by Dalinda is the subject of a fine engraving in the 1634 edition of Harington's ...

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, 1634 - portrait of Ariosto, prelim.p. 1r. title page, detail.

An Italian who inspired Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The work of Italian poet and dramatist Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) had considerable influence over in English writing in Shakespeare's time, ...

Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, 1634 - title page, prelim.p.1r.

An English translation of a Shakespeare source. Shakespeare also knew the work of the Italian Renaissance poet Ludovico Ariosto. Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso was published in Italy in 1516, and ...

Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, 1603 - p. A4r detail.

Dedicatory verses to a noble patron of Shakespeare's contemporary. Members of Queen Elizabeth's court, both men and women, as well as the Queen herself, enjoyed the work of poets and playwrights, offering ...

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 ...

Raphael Holinshed, The... Chronicles, 1577 - Volume 1 title page

Shakespeare’s major sourcebook for the history plays. Raphael (or Ralph) Holinshed began his career in London as a translator and worked on a history of the world of which the sections on England ...

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, ...

William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1600 [1619] - bookplate

An owner’s bookplate in a Shakespeare ‘quarto’. The ownership of books is frequently indicated by a label or ‘bookplate’ created for an individual owner. The label of ...

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