Exhibitions

First Folio Exhibition

Saturday, 23 April, 2016 04:30 PM - Wednesday, 27 April, 2016 08:00 PM

Venue : The West Exhibition Hall - BA Conference Center

The Norton Facsimile of the First Folio

Seven years after Shakespeare's death, John Heminge and Henry Condell, his friends and colleagues in the King's Men, collected almost all of his plays in a folio edition. Shakespeare's friendly rival Ben Jonson had previously published his own writings, poems included, in a folio. The 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare, however, is the earliest folio consisting only of an author's plays.

The First Folio groups the plays for the first time into comedies, histories, and tragedies, and it includes the Droeshout portrait of Shakespeare, generally considered an authentic image because it was approved by those who knew him. More importantly, the First Folio preserved 18 of Shakespeare's plays that had never been printed before: All’s Well That Ends WellAntony and CleopatraAs You Like ItComedy of ErrorsCoriolanusCymbeline1 Henry VIHenry VIIIJulius CaesarKing JohnMacbethMeasure for MeasureThe Taming of the ShrewThe TempestTimon of AthensTwelfth NightTwo Gentlemen of Verona, and The Winter’s Tale.

Researchers believe that 750 or fewer copies of the First Folio were printed; 233 survive today, of which 82 are in the Folger collection. Each one is slightly different, partly because proofing took place at the same time as printing. Being able to compare different copies side-by-side has greatly increased our understanding of the volume.

Source: http://www.folger.edu/publishing-shakespeare


The Folger Shakespeare Library has generously gifted the Bibliotheca Alexandrina the Norton Facsimile of the First Folio – the book that gave us Shakespeare.

This facsimile will be on display throughout the festival week.

Entrance is free of charge.