Continental Holdings for the sixteenth century: some 14,000
vols.
Religious Books
Biblical Paraphrases and Commentaries
Sixteenth-century English and Continental paraphrases of
books of the Bible as well as commentaries on specific
books may be found in the card catalog under the name of
each book.
German and Swiss Reformation
One of the most important and largest sixteenth century collections
at the Folger is that of Reformation literature. It includes
groups of Luther tracts and about 300 Luther items from
Sir Thomas Phillipps’ Collection, as well as 850
Reformation items from the Swiss collector, Emanuel Stickelberger.
Reformers, besides Luther, whose works are represented
include Bucer, Bullinger, Calvin, Erasmus, Hutten, Melanchthon,
and Zwingli.
Sermons
About 250 sixteenth-century sermons, European and English,
some from the Reformation collection. These are easily
identified in the card catalog with a chronological listing
under “Sermons.”
Chronicles and Travel Books
Highlights include the 1550 Mappe Mundi published in
London; Schedel’s 1497 Chronicles; chronicles by Fabyian,
Grafton, Hall and Holinshed; Braun and Hogenberg’s
Cities of the World (1595); sixteenth-century atlases
by Peter Appian, Mercator, Muenster, Norden, Ortelius,
Ptolemy
and Saxton; books of travel by Alberti, Bertelli,
Biondo Flavio, Corrozet, Signot and others of Italy
and France.
Political Pamphlets
Continental political pamphlets are an important resource
held by the Folger, but are not well known because many
of them are not cataloged. These include over 100 sixteenth-century
Dutch pamphlets, many from the Knuttel Catalog; as well
as over 400 French political pamphlets, and about 100 German,
Italian, Latin, and Spanish.
Festival Books
The Folger’s substantial collection of festival
books includes at least 40 from the sixteenth century.
Herbals
Over 100 sixteenth-century herbals, some of which are hand-colored.
Italian Material
Close to 500 editions of plays printed in Italy in
the sixteenth century, as well as many editions of
Ariosto and other Italian
poets, and Italian courtesy books and travel books.
Women
A number of books by and about women, including collections
of poetry by Italian women writers; books of poetry
praising women; Italian, French, and German conduct
books for women;
mothers’ legacies; festival books describing
entries or coronations of women; books on the diseases
of women;
treatises on women. There are also books on embroidery
patterns and tailoring, and books printed by women.
Art
Sixteenth-century Italian artistic treatises; over
250 emblem books, at least 30 of which are
sixteenth-century; engravings
in books or loose by artists such as Philippe
Gall, Marcus Gheeraerts, Crispijn van de Passe, Cornelis
Metsys, and
William Rogers.
Manuscripts
Family Papers: Bacon-Townsend, Bagot, Cavendish-Talbot,
Dering, Rich and Seymour families. Also has a number of early
deeds and inventories.
Loseley Collection: papers of the More family and Sir Thomas
Cawarden. Interesting documents include accounts for expenditures
for plays and masques at court in the 1540s and for Elizabeth’s
procession through London at the time of her coronation.
Strozzi Papers: 199 volumes of papers from the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries copied for a member of the Strozzi
family in the eighteenth century. Includes material on the
history of the Papacy, on Venetian politics and foreign relations,
and on Italian nobility. The detailed finding aid on the
web provides an index to the hundreds of people mentioned
in the documents.
Online Finding Aids for many of these sets of papers are
available via the Folger’s online catalog.
English political and Parliamentary documents: these include
a number from the reign of Elizabeth I, among them 38 documents
signed by her.
Commonplace Books: many are from the seventeenth century,
but sixteenth-century ones include a collection of historical
papers from 1555-1577, many connected with Oxford University;
a book of highly varied material kept by a Herefordshire
family from 1550-1590; and another containing both ecclesiastical
and medical materials.
