Shakespeare’s First Folio goes out on Tour

As Shakespeare fans will know, the First Folio is the first printed collection of Shakespeare’s plays, adding up to a total of 36 printed plays. Originally 750 copies of the First Folio were printed and of these it’s thought that 233 survive. The First Folio was popular and couldn’t meet demand and pretty soon reprints were being made, although many of them contain changes to the text making the First Folio even more valuable.

This year marks 400 years since the author’s death and as such you can expect many Shakespeare inspired events taking place all over the world. Here in the UK there are some spectacular events happening all the time, and his birthplace in Stratford upon Avon will be having a celebratory year showing many of his plays. However, the Shakespeare obsession continues worldwide and in the U.S the First Folio is about to go on tour.

Of the remaining manuscripts, The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C holds 82 copies (it’s the largest collection in the world, I had no idea it was held in the U.S), and this week they are sending out the First Folio on tour! The First Folio will be sent to all 50 states where you will be able to view the collection up close!

The Folger Library, I’ve learned, holds the 82 copies of the First Folio, and around half the material printed in England between 1473 and 1660. They hold all of them in a rare manuscript vault, several floors underground and to enter you must go through several heavy door and a fire door. The room has a system to remove oxygen from the room in the event of a fire, lest water damage those priceless books. It’s nice to see one of the biggest collections in the world is so well protected, but now it will at least be available for people to have a glimpse at.

The First Folio was originally written after the author’s death and put together by a couple of his friends. Although most of the plays were widely available to purchase at the time (around 1623), eighteen of them had never appeared in print. This means that without the First Folio we might have lost Twelfth Night, Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale and others. When the First Folio was printed it was readily available from booksellers around London for around 20 shillings, that’s around £150 in today’s money.

The remaining copies remain the very Holy Grail of literature, so here’s hoping the eighteen of Folger’s copies that are off around America, all come home to the book vault safe and sound. Of course, you might want to wait a while before rushing off to see them, who knows, maybe this Shakespeare guy is just a passing fad?