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Books are such an integral part of every facet of our lives that, even as we wonder about their future, we easily forget how precious they were to early modern readers. The close relationship between reader and book, between reading and writing, during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries has left us with a large body of evidence not only of the habits of individual readers but of the social and intellectual worlds they inhabited.The Reader Revealed brings to life the early owners and readers of books from the Folger Shakeseare Library, from the humble and pious to the most assiduous collectors. Early readers read with pen in hand; it is in their underlinings, emendations, and other marginalia that these readers are most vividly revealed to us.From highly decorated icon books to cheap, well-thumbed chap books of the late 17th century--which were carried in pockets until many disintegrated--The Reader Revealed shows the variety of ways in which readers have related to books over the centuries. The use of books as repositories of birth records, scholarly marginalia, and schoolboy doodles is also examined.