Masque of the Twelve Nations—Stuttgart, 1616

Extract

This issue's cover illustration was selected from among the splendid engravings in the Folger Shakespeare Library's recent exhibition The Festive Renaissance. The show featured thirty-nine magnificent books printed between 1549 and 1768 that record some of the extravagant pageantry in which royal power celebrated itself on such occasions as coronations, weddings, births, baptisms, royal entries, processions, tournaments, state visits, and funerals. These pageant books and others, some so large and weighty that they defied efforts to exhibit them, are part of a bibliographic collection given to the Folger Library by Mrs. H. Dunscombe Colt, whom the exhibition honored. Armida Colt assembled the collection in collaboration with her late husband. The Director of the Folger Library, Werner Gundersheimer, described the Colt collection as one of the most important benefactions in the library's history.