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What Did Renaissance Readers Write in their Printed Copies of Chaucer?

Wiggins, A. — 2008-04-10

This article surveys marginalia and readers' marks in fifty-four Renaissance printed copies of Chaucer. The discussion considers the use of Chaucer's works as sources of advice and wisdom; antiquarian interest in Chaucer; continuities and overlaps between print and manuscript cultures; the household as a site of reading and annotation; and women as participants amongst Chaucer's Renaissance readership. The trends and patterns identified, in many cases, corroborate the findings of other scholars and add further detail to existing profiles of the Renaissance reading experience. However, certain aspects of the annotations are shown to be peculiar to the Chaucer corpus. Most importantly, Chaucer's fame is repeatedly found to have influenced and inspired his Renaissance annotators. The annotations thus confirm literary historians' sense of Chaucer's importance as an auctor in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, whilst they also test and challenge certain assumptions about the nature of that authority.

One Hundred and Thirty-Seven Neglected English Play Manuscripts in the British Library (c. 1770-1809), Part I

Milhous, J., Hume, R. D. — 2008-04-10

The 137 play manuscripts (and some further play fragments) comprising British Library Add. MSS 25,906-26,036 were almost all submitted to Richard Brinsley Sheridan for production at Drury Lane in the period 1776-1809. They were presented to the British Museum in 1864 by Coventry Patmore with many gross misattributions and errors perpetrated by his father, Peter George Patmore. Many of these are still preserved in the British Library catalogue. Allardyce Nicoll failed to record 109 of the plays in his Handlists of English Drama. The collection includes both significant performed work by such playwrights as Inchbald and Reynolds and much unproducible work from anonymous and unknown writers. Some manuscripts contain projected cast lists and evidence of managerial editing. The present article attempts to describe the plays, to identify those printed or performed, and to augment and correct the British Library catalogue descriptions.

Machine-Made Paper, Seam Marks, and Bibliographical Analysis

McMullin, B. J. — 2008-04-10

The article surveys the production of machine-made paper in Britain before the mid-1830s, concentrating on the consequences of the construction of the Fourdrinier paper-making machine, specifically on the seam joining the two ends of the wire. The seam leaves a mark in those parts of the resulting web of paper that have rested on it, and the presence of seam marks in the leaves of printed books can be used in bibliographical analysis, including the identification of format, imposition schemes, cancellation, and the make-up of particular gatherings.

Guide to Scripts Used in English Writings up to 1500. By JANE ROBERTS. London: The British Library. 2005. xiv + 294 pp. + 8 colour plates. {pound}40. ISBN 0 7123 4884 0.

Rushforth, R. — 2008-04-10

Print Culture and the Medieval Author: Chaucer, Lydgate, and their Books, 1473-1557. By ALEXANDRA GILLESPIE. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2006. xiv + 281 pp. {pound}50. ISBN 0 19 926295 0.

Boffey, J. — 2008-04-10

Catalogues regionaux des incunables des bibliotheques publiques de France, vol. 17: Haute-Normandie. By VALERIE NEVEU. (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sciences historiques et philologiques, 6: Histoire et civilisation du livre, 28.) Geneva: Droz. 2005. 486 pp. + 15 colour and 18 black-and-white plates. CHF 92. ISBN 2 600 00987 6.

Davies, M. C. — 2008-04-10

The Spanish Letter of Columbus: A Facsimile of the Original Edition Published by Bernard Quaritch in 1891. Ed. by ANTHONY PAYNE. London: Quaritch. 2006. li + 33 pp. + 10 colour plates. {pound}60. ISBN 0 9550852 2 5.

West, G. — 2008-04-10

Le Livre reforme au XVI e siecle. By JEAN-FRANCOIS GILMONT. (Conferences Leopold Delisle.) Paris: Bibliotheque nationale de France. 2005. 151 pp. {euro}22. ISBN 2 7177 2333 1. * Le Livre evangelique en francais avant Calvin: etudes originales, publications d'inedits, catalogues d'editions anciennes / The French Evangelical Book before Calvin: Original Analyses, Newly Edited Texts, Bibliographic Catalogues. Ed. by JEAN-FRANCOIS GILMONT and WILLIAM KEMP. (Nugae humanisticae sub signo Erasmi, 4.) Turnhout: Brepols. 2004. 391 pp. {euro}40. ISBN 2 503 51705 6. * Erasme et le pouvoir de l'imprimerie. By KARINE CROUSAZ. Lausanne: Editions Antipodes. 2005. 197 pp. {euro}21. ISBN 2 940146 59 4.

Pettegree, A. — 2008-04-10

The First Quarto of 'Romeo and Juliet'. Ed. by LUKAS ERNE. (New Cambridge Shakespeare: The Early Quartos.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2007. xviii + 192 pp. {pound}45. ISBN 978 0 521 82121 6.

Lockwood, T. — 2008-04-10

Inventing Polemic: Religion, Print, and Literary Culture in Early Modern England. By JESSE M. LANDER. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2006. x + 324 pp. {pound}48. ISBN 0 521 83854 1.

Shell, A. — 2008-04-10

Bibliography on American Prints of the Seventeenth through the Nineteenth Centuries. By GEORGIA BRADY BARNHILL. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press; Fair.eld, CT: The American Historical Print Collectors Society. 2006. xviii + 210 pp. $65. ISBN 1 58456 193 9.

Shaw, M. J. — 2008-04-10

Scottish Bookplates. By BRIAN NORTH LEE and ILAY CAMPBELL. London: The Bookplate Society. 2006. 144 pp. {pound}20. ISBN 978 0 9555428 0 0.

Roads, E. — 2008-04-10

Henry James: A Bibliographic Catalogue of a Collection of Editions to 1921. By DAVID J. SUPINO. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 2006. xxiv + 515 pp. + 32 plates. {pound}70. ISBN 1 84631 005 9.

Gardner, K. J. — 2008-04-10

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2008-04-10