If this research is confirmed, it will add to the long list of books Shakespeare is known to have read. It also helps explain how a man with a grammar school education can be so knowledgeable -- he read a lot of books, especially books that were good source-material for his plays. Many of the "Shakespeare conspiracy" types who don't think a man without a college education could have written his plays have underestimated the amount of self-education a motivated intellectual can achieve.