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Historical Infinite Variety: Exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library ed. by Ester Ferington $35.00 / Folger Library / 2002 It is not exactly fair to describe Infinite Variety as a coffee table book, since the term implies a certain frivolity, but even the dimensions of this volume-wider than it is tall-bespeak a book for the casual browser. The book first gives a short history of Washington, DC's Folger Shakespeare Library, which opened April 23, 1932, on the 316th anniversary of the bard's death. A section on maps, manuscripts, and bookbinding contains examples from the 15th and 16th centuries, including pages from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, early German Bibles, artifacts pertaining to Queen Elizabeth I, and a sermon by Martin Luther. The Folger copy of Edmund Spenser's Shepheardes Calender-one of only seven extant copies of the first edition-is also gorgeously displayed here. Of course, the largest section of the book is devoted to Shakespeare. Portraits, busts, manuscripts of the bard, Benjamin West's dramatic painting of King Lear and Cordelia, the costume worn by Edwin Booth as Richard III-all of these and many more examples from the collection are included here. The text that accompanies the photographs is concise, informative, and clearly written, if a bit dry. Discussions range from the art of bookbinding to a survey of London's markets during the Renaissance, to the construction of windows during Elizabethan times. Infinite Variety would honor any coffee table, but chances are that readers will be referring to it more frequently than they will the ones about the Pennsylvania Amish, AIDS quilts, or household pets. For Infinite Variety is a real source of scholarship and splendor, the next best thing to actually visiting the Folger Shakespeare Library itself. --Charles Rammelkamp

Click here to order:Infinite Variety             To order Renaissance Magazine, click here. To order medieval tapestries and other period products, click here.