Heavy Reading ëTrevelyon Miscellanyí Is Encyclopedia of Life in 1608 by Gary Tischler Imagine for a moment, a really big bookóweighty, old and full of archaic terms but in essence what you might think of as a combination of the World Almanac, the Farmerís Almanac and the very best of Readerís Digest. Think not of the year 2004 but rather 1608. Youíd end up with ìThe Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608,î a huge (600 pages and a foot-and-a-half tall) book put together by the English Protestant and craftsman named Thomas Trevelyon, who acted as an encyclopedia condenser, compiler, collector, culler and literary vacuum cleaner of everything in writtenóand illustratedóform that might interest Englishmen of the time, especially if they were right-thinking Protestants. Significant portions of the volume, which has been magnificently and meticulously restored as part of a conservation project begun in 1995, are now on view in ìWord and Image: The Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608î at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Heather Wolfe, Folger curator of manuscripts, called the Miscellany a ìprototype coffee table book, created for the entertainment, education and edification of [Trevelyonís] friends and family.î ìIt shows us the concerns and interests of a well-read craftsman in Shakespeareís England, and it wonderfully evokes the colorful visual and textual landscape in which he lived,î Wolfe said. The exhibition is a window into various parts of the book, which in turn offers a window into the lives of England at the time of James I and VI, the son of Mary Queen of Scots who succeeded to the throne of England upon the death of the heirless Queen Elizabeth. Trevelyon used a kind of kitchen-sink approach to bring order to the world of his time in matters that range from history, religion and the universe to plants, animals and the Bible. Benjamin Franklin would have been right at home here: The book is full of proverbs, both useful and not. Superstition goes hand in hand with pragmatism. There are stories to be told, lists to be offered up, humors to be distilled, recipes to be given, books to be perused and calendars to be followed. As a kind of best-of-Trevelyon, the exhibition leaves you a little breathless, with a lot of English usages and spellings to sort through. It ranges over a number of categories, many of them dealing with various stations in life, particularly for women. This is the kind of exhibition that requires at least a quarter of a day to visit. Even though it is only a representation of the larger book, it manages to make vivid an entire worldóthat of post-Elizabethan England. This is how people used to read, how they viewed the world, what they believed, what thrilled them and what was useful to them. These are the time framesóthe hours, days and months usually centered around Easter, the holy day of Protestantismóin which people conducted their lives. Here, for example, is the story of Adam and Eve as well as a grisly drawing of the execution of the people behind the Gunpowder plotówhich gives one a fair rendering of what itís like to be drawn and quarteredóand here viewers will find Trevelyonís name, elaborately embroidered and signed as befits a master designer and craftsman. The Miscellany, as the name implies, is a compilation of items that the author took from all sorts of sources. And although the Miscellany is not made up of Trevelyonís actual writings, some of his own design work is included, from woodcuts to old illustrations. The result explains quite a bit about the life and times of England, circa 1608, and everything that came before then. In the end, the Miscellany is much like a time machine, packed to the brim for traveling. ìWord and Image: The Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608î runs through May 22 at the Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capitol St., SE. For more information, please call (202) 544-7077 or visit www.folger.edu. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.