The First Folio and the merchants of Venice: A collection of books from the natio Anglica in Padua

Abstract

The Padua First Folio owned by the Biblioteca Universitaria does not include the original binding, but photos show the shelfmark as having belonged to the Santa Giustina Library. Other English books with the same binding and similar shelfmarks have been found, all coming from Santa Giustina. Some of them contain a mark of ownership by the two John Hobsons, consuls of the English nation in Venice in the seventeenth century, who bequeathed their books to the library of the natio Anglica at Padua University. We know very little about this library, founded in 1649. An Appendix proposes a reconstruction.