The Marlowe Census borrows its methodology and design from the ongoing Shakespeare Census conducted by Adam Hooks and Zachary Lesser. It attempts to locate and describe all extant copies of all editions of Christopher Marlowe’s works printed through 1700. Following the lead of the Shakespeare Census, I include all print items attributed to Marlowe during the period, including works now thought to be apocryphal, but not works that have been attributed to him only by later scholarship. I also exclude Restoration adaptations of Marlowe’s works and the early anthologies that include excerpts from his plays and poems. Copies that were attested previously but that are currently missing or known to be destroyed are not included in the census.
The Census currently includes 338 copies and 3 fragments. Fragmentary copies are indicated by the icon . Currently, 184 copies are attested only by the holding details in the ESTC, library catalogues, or auction records. As these details can be erroneous, such copies will be listed as unverified (⃠) until they have been confirmed. All copies marked as verified (✓) have been confirmed on site.
High-quality, color digital facsimiles are available for 29 copies, or 9% of the total. Click on the icon in the list of copies to access the digital facsimile. If you know of any facsimiles that are missing from the census, please let me know. (Note that the census does not include EEBO images or other lower-resolution image sets.)
A list of all unverified copies can be found here. A list of "ghost" copies (which are recorded in the ESTC or other library catalogs but which turn out not to exist) can be found here. A list of all libraries currently in the database, along with the number of copies that they hold, can be downloaded here. Note that universities which have multiple collection locations associated with them will each appear separately in the list.
Each copy in the Marlowe Census has been given a unique identifier, the MC#, which can be used in references and citations and which will not change over time. Please cite the Marlowe Census as follows:
Marlowe Census. Ed. Rob Carson. Created 2022. Accessed 21 December 2024. <http://www.marlowecensus.org>. MC n.
The static URL for any copy is https://marlowecensus.org/copy/n, where n is the MC#.
Contributions, corrections, and all other feedback are welcome by email.
Created by: Rob Carson
Shakespeare Census code originally written by: Scott Enderle
Marlowe Census code substantially redesigned by: Louis Hopkins and Rob Carson
Funding for this project has been generously provided by Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the American Philosophical Society.