Tudor and Early Stuart printed books (1501–1649) are well represented at the Clark, anchored by sub-collections that include the Harmsworth Theological Library, the Isaac Foot Pamphlet Collection (rich in materials related to the British Civil Wars), and the recently acquired Paul Chrzanowski Collection of Shakespeareana. The Chrzanowski collection is particularly strong in early sixteenth-century literature and chronicle histories, including works by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and English translations of Continental literature. At the beginning of the twentieth century William Andrews Clark Jr. purchased actively in the field of early modern drama: the library’s collection of early modern English playbooks is extensive and includes all four folio editions of Shakespeare’s plays, eighteen quarto editions of Shakespeare’s plays printed before 1640, and 215 additional playbooks printed before 1660 (dozens from the library of actor John Philip Kemble). The Clark also has a considerable collection of sixteenth-century French literature, including early editions of Montaigne, Ronsard, Du Bellay, and Rabelais.

Highlights

• Paul Chrzanowski Collection of texts that Shakespeare likely read or could have read in some form
• rare first-edition quarto playbooks of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice (1600) and Othello (1622), among others
• forged Shakespearean annotations by W. H. Ireland in a copy of Roger Cotton, A Direction to the Waters of Lyfe (1592)

Selected Search

• UCLA Library Catalog: Clark holdings
  • 1501 to 1649