Literature

Charles Dickens with family and friends on the porch of Gad’s Hill. Georgina Hogarth is on the bottom right, c.1865.

The Wing of Friendship

Charles Dickens’ most enduring friendship was with his sister-in-law, who has been remembered as his housekeeper.

Shakespeare’s First Folio in the library of Durham University, 1950s.

The First Folio

The stage has a short memory, print a long one: 400 years since its first publication, Shakespeare’s First Folio is the reason we remember him.

Marija Jurić Zagorka, mid-20th century.

Literary Heroine

One of Croatia’s most-read authors, Marija Jurić Zagorka spent her life in defiance of convention.

the Wife of Bath, the Ellesmere Manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, c.1410.

Are you Experienced?

Not a queen or a saint, witch or idealised lady-love, the Wife of Bath is a much-married working woman and an enthusiastic traveller.

Pietro Miliani’s paper mill in Fabriano, Italy in the mid-15th century.

Clean Sheets

The smooth whiteness of paper belies the mess and hard labour that went into its production.

 17th-century manicule and notes in the margin of translations of Aristotle. Courtesy of the Penn Library.

Filling the Gaps

Notes in the margins of early modern books can be very revealing about their readers’ lives and interests.