Invisible Ink: A Note on Ghost Images in Early Printed Books

This note speculates on traces left in rare book collections that are not catalogued and that do not appear in digital reproductions. Using examples of unseen evidence in two of Shakespeare's so-called Pavier Quartos, I suggest that perceptions of literary history can depend on practices of bibliographical description and codification, which are not always objective. I argue that attending to the "invisible" can expand accounts of the history of reading and literary production and renew our incentive to do archival work in archives.