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Shakespeare & Beyond

Shakespeare treasures, up for adoption

Acquisitions Night
Acquisitions Night

A 1957 The Taming of the Shrew with beautiful lithographs and a text translated by Victor Hugo’s son. Song lyrics from 1769 extolling the goblet carved from a mulberry tree supposedly planted by Shakespeare. These and other recent additions to the Folger Shakespeare Library collection will be up for adoption later this month at Acquisitions Night. At this annual event, friends and supporters of the Folger gather to interact with curators, collectors, and other Folger experts. Take a closer look at some of the collection items, with notes from Folger curators.

A French translation of The Taming of the Shrew

William Shakespeare, 1564-1616. [Taming of the Shrew. French] La sauvage apprivoisée / Shakespeare ; lithographies originales de Paul Aïzpiri; traduction de François-Victor Hugo. [Paris]: Les Francs-Bibliophiles, 1957.

An inspiration for this book was the influential “livre de peintre” Eaux-fortes originales pour des textes de Buffon with Picasso’s lithographs published in 1942. The printed wrapper and the case are an integral part of the book, which is made of a group of unbound sheets. The color lithographs are by the Basque artist Paul Aïzpiri (1919-2016) whose work in the 1950s was exhibited with artists such as Bernard Buffet. The French translation of The Taming of the Shrew used for this edition was the one written by François-Victor Hugo (1828-1873), Victor Hugo’s son.