Henry Neville's Library of Shakespeare Sources

[Update 10/24/2019: Steadily, I am publishing the complete book list with links to the specific edition of each book. Check out the Henry Neville Research Wiki for more.]

Scholars have carefully traced the sources used in the creation of the works of Shakespeare. Dozens of books have been identified in English, Latin, Italian, and French which the author of the works of Shakespeare must have read.

Henry Neville (1563-1615) left behind a large library. In 1780, a catalog was made of the books at his home at Billingbear. Examining that list shows an extraordinary correlation with the sources used by Shakespeare. Some of these books are currently at Audley End.

I visited the Berkshire Record Office last week and photographed this catalog. With their permission, I will highlight some of the most interesting connections between that catalog and the works of Shakespeare.

Source texts are one of the most reliable means to determine authorship. Only someone who had access to -- and could read -- the source texts could have written the works of Shakespeare. The alignment between Shakespeare's sources and Neville's library provides strong evidence supporting his authorship.


Othello and Measure for Measure - Cinthio's Gli Hecatommithi

This article from the British Library gives a good overview of how the plays Othello and Measure for Measure are based on Cinthio's Gli Hecatommithi. Henry Neville owned a 1580 edition of the book:

Here is the cover page of the edition cited in the above Billingbear catalog entry:

Unfortunately, this book doesn't appear to currently be at Audley End. This book, in Italian, was not widely read in England at the time. It is quite an extraordinary coincidence that Henry Neville owned this book which was the main source of two Shakespeare plays.

Hamlet - Saxonis Grammatici Danica Historia

This Latin book, also called the Gesta Danorum, is the ultimate source for Hamlet. The British Library has an excellent description of the book's connection with Hamlet.

This is the cover page of the edition of the book listed in the catalog, you can read it on Google Books:

Here is the Wikipedia entry for Gesta Danorum, it discusses in detail the editions of the book and its relation to Hamlet.

All's Well that Ends Well and Cymbeline - Boccaccio's Decameron

Henry Neville seems to have owned two copies of Boccaccio's Decameron, 1527 and 1555, and it is a major source for the works of Shakespeare.

Here is  Wikipedia on All's Well that Ends Well:

"The play is based on a tale (tale nine of day three) of Boccaccio's The Decameron."

Here is Wikipedia on Cymbeline:

"The subplot of Posthumus and Iachimo's wager derives from story II.9 of Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron and the anonymously authored Frederyke of Jennen."

Sonnet 144 also references The Decameron and The Two Gentlemen of Verona may also have used it as a source.

Much Ado About Nothing - Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso 

Here is the cover for this 1580 edition, you can read it on Google Books:

Wikipedia explains the connection with Much Ado About Nothing:

"Another version featuring lovers Ariodante and Ginevra, with the servant Dalinda impersonating Ginevra on the balcony, appears in Book V of Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, published in an English translation in 1591. The character of Benedick too has a counterpart in a commentary upon marriage in Orlando Furioso, but the witty wooing of Beatrice and Benedick is original and very unusual in style and syncopation."

Troilus and Cressida and Two Noble Kinsmen - Chaucer's Works

Here is the cover for this 1602 edition, you can read the whole thing on Archive.org:

This edition does not appear to be at Audley End. The first edition of this book was in 1598 and Henry Neville appears to have owned the second, 1602 edition. Though Chaucer is believed to be an influence on the entire Shakespeare canon, the two major works with Chaucer as a source were written in 1602 and later:

Here is Wikipedia on the source Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida's sources:

"The story of Troilus and Cressida is a medieval tale that is not part of Greek mythology; Shakespeare drew on a number of sources for this plotline, in particular Chaucer's version of the tale, Troilus and Criseyde, but also John Lydgate's Troy Book and Caxton's translation of the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye."

Here is Wikipedia on the source for Shakespeare/Fletcher's Two Noble Kinsmen:

"Its plot derives from "The Knight's Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales"

Hamlet and other works - Sextus Empiricus 

Sextus Empiricus was a Greek skeptic philosopher. You can read about him on Wikipedia or the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Henry Neville had a 1569 edition of his works translated into Latin:

You can download a copy of this edition on Google Books:

There is an extensive academic literature connecting the philosophy of Sextus Empiricus with the works of Shakespeare.

For instance, in "Shakespeare and the Ten Modes of Skepticism," Robert Pierce writes: "My aim is to demonstrate some striking parallels with Pyrrhonist thought in Shakespeare's plays and poems and then to... associate  Shakespeare with scepticism as many critics have done, but in a more specific way, aiming at what is distinctively Pyrrhonist." (Shakespeare Survey, Volume 46)

See also:
Skepticism and Memory in Shakespeare and Donne by Anita Gilman Sherman.
Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and Renaissance Skepticism by Steven Jay Doloff
Rethinking Shakespeare's Skepticism by Suzanne M. Tartamella

Rape of Lucrece and Coriolanus  - Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Diodorus Siculus

Neville's library included a copy of the Latin translation of the history of  Diodorus Siculus:

Here is the title page for this edition, you can see the whole thing on Google Books:

Neville also had the 1546 edition of the history of Dionysius of Halicarnassus in Greek:

Both of these books deal with the story of the Rape of Lucrece, and are possible source material for the Shakespeare poem published in 1594.

For more information see:
Redeeming Lost Honor: Shakespeare's Rape of Lucrece

They also may have provided source material for Shakespeare's Roman plays. This may be a fruitful area for further research.

Othello - Historia della guerra fra Turchi, et Persiani

Giovanni Tommaso Minadoi's 1594 Historia della guerra fra Turchi, et Persiani is a possible source for Othello:

You can read the entire thing on Archive.org, here is the title page:

Titus Andronicus - Herodian's Roman History

Here is the title page of the 1581 Greek/Latin edition that was in Neville's library, you can read the whole thing on Google Books:

See the Wikipedia entry:

G. K. Hunter has suggested Shakespeare may have taken Saturninus' name from Herodian's History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus, which features a jealous and violent tribune named Saturninus

This essay on Titus Andronicus and Herodian

Summary

This is only the beginning of the connections between Neville's library and the works of Shakespeare. I will post more soon.

What is important to realize is that this book list is going to greatly expand our understanding of what constituted "Shakespeare's sources." There are many books on Italian history and politics. As scholars go through these books, they will almost certainly find echoes in Shakespeare's Italian plays. The Roman history plays also need to be re-evaluated with this book list as background.

So far we have only been able to figure out the sources for the works of Shakespeare working backwards from the plays and poems. This book list lets us move forward from source texts the author may have read, in whole or in part.