![]() ![]() English readers like Shakespeare had to rely on imported books in order to gain access to many important classical works. The volume includes a brief life of the playwright, marginal notes, and an index of “old and rare words.” The book was printed in the internationally renowned shop of Christopher Plantin in Antwerp, whose famous device (the golden compass) can be seen on the title-page. #4: Terence, selected plays (1560) This edition of Terence’s works was prepared by the Dutch scholar Theodor Pulmannus (or Poelman). ![]() This copy was once owned by two different members of a family whose name was “Maciga,” as the inscriptions on the title-page reveal. This small, portable edition of the poem was published by Sebastian Gryphius, a humanist printer in Lyon, France. #3: Ovid, Metamorphoses (1545) The Metamorphoses, an epic poem in fifteen books, was Ovid’s masterpiece, and it was one of the most influential and widely imitated poems in the English Renaissance. ![]() This copy was annotated in both brown and red ink by a sixteenth-century reader. ![]() This book was printed by the Venetian scholar-printer Aldus Manutius, who was famous for publishing convenient, small-format editions of classical works. The title includes Ovid’s full name, Publius Ovidius Naso (“Naso” means “big nose,” and reflects the most distinctive physical feature of the poet). This volume includes several of Ovid’s scandalous, erotic works, including De Arte Amandi (“The Art of Love”) and De Remedia Amoris (“The Cure of Love”). #2: Ovid, selected works (1502) Ovid was the most important literary influence on Shakespeare, especially early in his career, and he was widely identified as an Ovidian poet by his contemporaries. This copy was annotated throughout by a seventeenth-century reader who drew in “manicules,” or pointing fingers, a sign commonly used to mark important passages. The book was printed by John Legate, the University Printer in Cambridge, a sign that it was intended for a primarily academic audience. Richard Bernard, a clergyman and graduate of Christ’s College, Cambridge, produced this popular translation in 1598, and it was reprinted six times during his lifetime. This book provides the Latin text of the plays with an English translation. #1: Richard Bernard, translator, Terence in English (1614) The comedies of the Roman playwright Terence were an important influence on Shakespeare, who read the plays in Latin in grammar school. This case includes examples of the many kinds of books that would have constituted Shakespeare’s library. He then incorporated, adapted, and transformed those texts in his own poems and plays. Shakespeare read widely and actively in a remarkable variety of forms, genres, and languages. The reading and writing skills he learned in his youth served him well throughout his life. Shakespeare was educated at the grammar school in Stratford, where he received an intense training in classical works of literature and rhetoric which he read in the original Latin. This exhibition explores the books that made Shakespeare: the books he read and used, the books that preserved his works, and the books that shaped and reshaped his reputation and textual afterlife. Studying the ways in which his plays and poems were printed and published, bought and sold, and collected and catalogued in his own time can help us understand why he remains so important to us today. His works were given new life in print, and Shakespeare was first defined as an author by the Renaissance book trade. In the centennial year of 2016 the University of Iowa is joining in the global celebration of Shakespeare’s life and works.Īs one of the owners of the most successful theater company of his age, Shakespeare devoted his career to writing and performing in plays. Shakespeare died four hundred years ago, but he is alive and well in our contemporary culture. ![]()
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