Catalogue of the Books Presented by Edward Capell to the Library of Trinity College in Cambridge

In Short

This work is a rigorous descriptive catalog documenting the rare books and early printings gifted by scholar Edward Capell to Trinity College, Cambridge. Compiled by bibliographer W. W. Greg, the text itemizes early quarto and folio editions of William Shakespeare, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, and their contemporaries. It details physical collations, imprints, dedications, and ownership histories for each volume. By charting the specific physical copies Capell gathered to produce his landmark editions of Shakespeare, the catalog records the survival, transmission, and preservation of early modern English literature.

The Story

The text traces the formal organization and historical trajectory of Edward Capell’s massive collection of early modern printed books and manuscripts. Collected over decades to serve as the critical foundation for his landmark eighteenth-century edition of Shakespeare’s plays and commentaries, the library represents one of the most comprehensive assemblages of Tudor and Stuart literature ever gathered by a single scholar. Upon completing his editorial life's work, Capell presented the most precious portion of his collection to Trinity College, Cambridge, a gift officially accepted with formal thanks by the Master and Seniors of the Society on June 26, 1779.

The catalog opens with an institutional overview detailing the acquisition of the collection and the archival conditions governing its keeping. From this historical preface, the work transitions into an exhaustive, alphabetical inventory of Capell's holdings. Entry by entry, the volume progresses through the masterworks and obscure ephemera of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It records the first and subsequent editions of playbooks by Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, George Chapman, and Thomas Dekker, as well as early printings of Geoffrey Chaucer, John Donne, Michael Drayton, and Edmund Spenser.

At the center of the collection is an extraordinary array of Shakespeariana. The catalog meticulously details the structural anatomy of the 1623 First Folio alongside individual quarto editions of plays like Love's Labour's Lost, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, and Pericles, noting precise lineation, pagination anomalies, and variant imprints. Surrounding these dramatic works are the essential source texts and background materials Capell consulted: Sir Thomas North's translation of Guevara's Dial of Princes, Richard Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and translation dictionaries by John Florio and Richard Percyvall.

The arc of the catalog concludes with detailed cross-indexes of printers, stationers, and booksellers across London, Edinburgh, Oxford, Cambridge, and Continental printing centers like Venice, Paris, and Leyden. By moving from institutional gift to detailed collation and finally to commercial trade indexes, the volume charts the full lifecycle of the early printed book from shop floor to scholarly library.

How It Unfolds

The gift is recorded The volume opens with a historical preface documenting Edward Capell’s donation of his extensive library of early printed plays and manuscripts to Trinity College, Cambridge. It includes the official 1779 minute from the Master and Seniors formally thanking Capell for his gift.

The dramatists are collated The catalog enters its primary sequence, itemizing early quarto and folio printings of Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. Each entry records title pages, leaf formats, publisher imprints, dedications, and structural flaws for works by Beaumont, Fletcher, Chapman, and their peers.

The Shakespearian core is cataloged A central section provides exhaustive bibliographic breakdowns of Shakespeare's canonical plays and apocrypha. It describes the complex gathering and irregular pagination of the 1623 First Folio alongside individual quarto printings from printers like Isaac Jaggard, John Smethwick, and Thomas Pavier.

The background library is mapped The inventory expands to include non-dramatic source material, contemporary poetry, dictionaries, and chronicle histories. Works by Chaucer, Spenser, Donne, Holinshed, and Hakluyt are described with exact physical measurements and signature collations.

The trade network is indexed The volume concludes with extensive comparative indexes listing every printer, publisher, and bookseller represented in Capell's collection. This section links individual surviving copies back to the historical pressmen and shops of early modern Europe.

The People

• Edward Capell wants to assemble the ultimate reference library of Elizabethan literature to produce an authoritative, textually accurate edition of Shakespeare's works. Faced with scattered, fragile, and corrupted early printings, he spends his life hunting down original quartos and folios, ultimately securing their permanent preservation by donating them to Trinity College.
• W. W. Greg wants to systematically document, measure, and catalog every item in Capell’s donation according to modern bibliographical standards. Working through centuries of re-bindings, missing leaves, and printing variations, he constructs a precise descriptive record that renders the collection accessible to future generations of textual scholars.
• William Shakespeare serves as the central focal figure of the entire collection. His original printed plays—ranging from early single-play quartos to the massive 1623 First Folio—drive the collection's creation and define its bibliographical scope.
• The Master and Seniors of Trinity College want to enrich their university library with priceless literary artifacts while accepting responsibility for their safe keeping. They formally receive Capell's gift in 1779, transforming a private scholar's working collection into an enduring institutional treasure.

In Its Own Voice

"Agreed by the Master and Seniors, that the thanks of the Society be presented to Edward Capel, Esq. for the valuable Collection of the old Editions of Shakespeare, and of the several manuscripts and printed books, relating to the same Author."

This college minute from June 26, 1779, marks the formal transfer of Capell's private collection into the permanent custody of Trinity College.

"The books catalogued in the present volume were collected by the Shakespearian scholar Edward Capell and formed the principal part of his library during the years which he spent in the preparation of his edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works."

W. W. Greg's preface explains how a editor's working reference library was built over decades to solve textual problems in early English drama.

"As the present copy shows no trace of ever having been tampered with, the above arrangement is probably original."

Greg's descriptive notes on the 1623 First Folio highlight the minute physical analysis required to determine authentic early modern book binding and assembly.

What It's Really About

This book is fundamentally about the material culture of literature and the preservation of written heritage. It examines how fragile paper, ink, and printer's type transmit poetry and drama across centuries. Rather than treating plays as abstract ideas, the catalog treats them as physical trade goods subject to press errors, missing leaves, pirated editions, and varying shop practices. Underneath its technical lists lies a commitment to textual accuracy, showing that understanding Shakespeare requires knowing the physical books in which his words first survived.

Why Read It Today

This catalog is an indispensable resource for bibliographers, book historians, and scholars of early modern English literature. Reading it offers an unmediated look into the birth of English textual editing and the physical reality of Renaissance publishing. Rather than reading about Elizabethan drama in abstract terms, the reader encounters the exact trade details of the period: page dimensions, signature marks, blank leaves, and the names of the booksellers who sold these plays out of stalls in St. Paul's Churchyard.

The book demands patience and familiarity with bibliographical notation. It is filled with technical collation formulas, leaf measurements, black-letter typography notes, and short-title citations that offer no narrative hand-holding. Yet for anyone fascinated by how historical texts survive the fires, dispersals, and wear of time, Greg’s meticulous work stands as a monument to scholarly precision and institutional memory.