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Illustrations Figure 1. ‘‘The use, not the reading, of books makes us wise,’’ from Geoffrey Whitney’s Choice of Emblems (1586) xiv Figure 2. Title page of Cardinal William Allen, A True, Sincere, and Modest Defense xviii Figure 3. Richard Topcliffe’s marginalia in Allen’s True, Sincere, and Modest Defense xix Figure 4. Dueling marginalia in a Catholic text 11 Figure 5. Isaac Casaubon reads Francis Bacon for English practice 14 Figure 6. Ownership inscriptions in The Treasury of Amadis of France 19 Figure 7. The Levenger Company’s ‘‘How to Leave Masterly Marginalia’’ 26 Figure 8. Reader’s key to his symbolic indexing system in Cicero’s De Oratore 28 Figure 9. John Dee’s manicules in Pantheus’s Voarchadumia 31 Figure 10. Archbishop Matthew Parker’s characteristic manicule 31 Figure 11. Bernardo Bembo’s lifelike manicules in his commonplace book 35 Figure 12. Elaborate manicules in a commentary on Aristotle 37 Figure 13. Reader playing with the space of the page 38 Figure 14. ‘‘A Show of Hands’’: Charles Hasler’s printed manicules 39 Figure 15. Ben Jonson’s emphatic manicule in Puttenham’s Art of English Poesy 46 Figure 16. Mary Crewe’s notes on faith in John Ball’s Short Treatise 60 Figure 17. Dorothy Clegge’s notes in William Gouge’s Of Domestical Duties 62 Figure 18. Lady Grace Mildmay’s autobiographical and spiritual meditations 64 Figure 19. Richard Topcliffe’s note on the Bible seized by Sir Francis Drake during his raid on Santo Domingo in 1586 78 Figure 20. An embroidered binding on a 1616 Bible: the front (Old Testament) cover 81 x Illustrations Figure 21. An embroidered binding on a 1616 Bible: the back (New Testament) cover 82 Figure 22. A child’s embellishments of the royal arms in a 1628 King James Bible 85 Figure 23. Manuscript Book of Common Prayer (1560–62): typographical initial featuring rose and serpent 88 Figure 24. Manuscript Book of Common Prayer (1560–62): plundered initials from late medieval manuscripts 89 Figure 25. Censored prayers in a 1545 primer 93 Figure 26. Manuscript Book of Common Prayer (1560–62): amateur mock-woodcut initial 97 Figure 27. Manuscript Book of Common Prayer (1560–62): professional mock-woodcut initial 98 Figure 28. Manuscript Book of Common Prayer (1560–62): recycled initial with Christ displaying wounds 99 Figure 29. Sir Julius Caesar’s additions to the index in Foxe’s Pandectae locorum communium 133 Figure 30. Caesar’s notes on curiosity in Foxe’s Pandectae locorum communium 135 Figure 31. Caesar’s revisions of The Ancient State . . . of the Court of Requests 143 Figure 32. Marginalia in a 1583 Psalter 153 Figure 33. Sign on readers’ tables from Cambridge University Library 156 Figure 34. ‘‘Unused Books’’: a foolish reader from The Ship of Fools (1509) 160 Figure 35. William Smedley’s table of Bacon’s marginal marks 171 Figure 36. ‘‘Finger on the future’’ at the National Library of Scotland 180 ...

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