Browse Items (8955 total)

Grease stain and the beginning of Measure for Measure.

A dirty page.

Columbia's copy of the 1609 Faerie Queene lacks the title page and dedicatory epistle. One of the book's owners thus removed the title page preceding books 4-6, inserted it at the beginning of the book, and altered it to read "The First Part of the…

This copy was missing some leaves, so one of the book's owners carefully made an ink facsimile of the missing pages.

The end of the ink facsimile.

The end of Book 3 and beginning of Book 4 of The Faerie Queene. The title page that should be between these two leaves has been moved to the front of the book and altered.

Note by James Boaden, former owner.

Original title page with a much later frontispiece.

Original title page with a much later frontispiece.

Editor's preface.

Beginning of the Knight's Tale, with woodcut.

Beginning of the Squire's Tale, with woodcut.

Title page of The Vision of Pierce Plowman.

Crowley's letter to the reader. Like Bale, Crowley packages the fourteenth-century poet as a proto-reformer.

Text that summarizes the poem's passus.

One of the book's annotators glossed the hard words in the margins.

Bossy printed marginalia. "Reade thys," it instructs.

Handwritten table of contents.

Title page of Hamlet.

A note to the reader about excisions to the text made during performance.