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  • Arch. G c.7
    Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford     Order image

William Shakespeare, 'The First Folio'

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William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

1623

Printed Book

This is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, published seven years after his death by two of his fellow actors. The first collected edition of any English playwright, it prints a total of thirty-six plays, many of which would otherwise have been lost to future generations.

This is the copy of the First Folio that was acquired by the Bodleian soon after publication, in accordance with the agreement with the Stationers’ Company. It was added to the chained folio-sized books in Duke Humfrey’s Library, where it was openly accessible to readers.

Some years later the First Folio left the Bodleian – perhaps it was deemed superfluous after the acquisition of a Third Folio in 1664, and disposed of. When, however, it resurfaced in 1905, the Library made an enormous effort to reacquire it. An anonymous American collector (now known to be Henry Folger) was prepared to pay £3,000 for the book, an unheard-of sum, and it was only through an urgent public appeal that the Bodleian succeeded in matching the offer.

This copy of the First Folio is still in the original binding which in 1905 identified it as the Bodleian copy. The first Bodleian shelfmark had been torn from the bottom of the title page.

An introduction to Shakespeare's 'First Folio' that the Bodleian once gave away by Dr Emma Smith, Fellow in English, University of Oxford.

Comments

What makes this a treasure?

The digital facsimile of the Bodleian's First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, Bodleian Arch. G c.7. can be found here:

http://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/

Posted by Andrew Bonnie

On 20/05/2013

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/facsimile/

Posted by John McAndrew

On 23/04/2013

A very nice story about the missing first folio but I would rather have seen the online edition as promised by the BBC in its website feature today.

"The Bodleian Library's First Folio from 1623 has been put online for the first time"

Posted by John McAndrew

On 23/04/2013

Oxford should be acknowledged as the mother of human civilization

Posted by Azad-McGuire

On 08/11/2012

The reason it’s a fabulous Bodleian treasure is it came to the Bodleian probably in January 1624 just after it was printed … and we don’t know how much it’s looked at in the library but it must have been probably the first and probably only volume at that time of English plays in the library. The Bodleian had not been interested in plays … so this is a new thing for the Bodleian to get. But more extraordinarily when the later editions of the folio come out the Bodleian decide to get rid of this one and update to the third edition, the third folio of 1663/64 - they get rid of this one as if it’s an out of date textbook... And then the book is lost – no-one knows where it is - until the fantastic circumstances of its return in 1905…

Posted by Dr Emma Smith

On 05/09/2011

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