Album Amicorum: Album Amicorum and the London of Shakespeare's Time

The album amicorum or 'book of friends', originated in Germany about the middle of the 16th century and very quickly became fashionable on the Continent among students moving from one university to another in the course of their academic careers. Professors as well as fellow students made their contribution to these pages and some of the albums contain inscriptions by major scholars of the day. Many of the albums also contain illustrations, sometimes contributed by the signatories themselves and sometimes commissioned by professional artists. This book, the first full-length study in English of the album amicorum, aims to secure a place for this intriguing, under-examined genre in the study of early modern culture. It focuses on the many traces of Shakespeare's London contained in alba amicorum as the albums' owners travelled to London and recorded their impressions and their encounters with Londoners. England, then as now, was part of a network of European relationships with complementary and competing ideas about politics, religion, trade and leisure.
Continental documents such as alba amicorum provide a perspective on that culture and through this book it is hoped that the insights they provide will become an integral and transformative part of the picture of early modern England.