Department of English

• Monday, September 30, 2024 - 5:15pm to 7:15pm

Class of 1978 Pavilion, in the Kislak Center for Special Collections on the 6th floor of the University of Pennsylvania's Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center

We are thrilled to welcome Heather Wolfe (Folger Shakespeare Library) for a talk titled: "Paper Predilections in Early Modern England." Dr. Wolfe writes: 

Almost everyone in early modern England used ordinary stationery, which could be purchased inexpensively at 4p a quire (25 sheets), for most of their writing needs. But high-status people also shopped for and used much more expensive paper for certain types of correspondence, account books, and presentation manuscripts. In this talk, I’ll explore what makes paper fancy and how to spot it in the wild, and I’ll look at the predilections of a few early modern paper snobs. I hope you’ll be convinced that paper choices convey meaning, and that just as today, committing a paper foul was something to be avoided.

Heather Wolfe is consulting curator of manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library, where she has worked since 2000. She has various projects going on right now, including an Oxford University Press book on early modern writing paper, her work with Peter Stallybrass and Ray Schrire on the materiality of numeracy, and forthcoming exhibitions on Esther Inglis (co-curated with Georgianna Ziegler and Ashley Buchanan) and Tudor Power Players. She has an essay coming out in October, “Sir John Spilman and the London Rag-gatherers.”