![]() ![]() Scholars now agree that Edward III, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and Pericles, Prince of Tyre were co-written by Shakespeare, but they are missing from the collection for unclear reasons. The Folio doesn’t actually collect all of Shakespeare’s plays. In alphabetical order, the plays that were saved are All’s Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Henry VI Part 1, Henry VIII, Julius Caesar, King John, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Timon of Athens, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Winter’s Tale. While many of Shakespeare’s plays had previously been printed in quarto editions, 18 hadn’t been published at all and would likely have been lost if the First Folio had not been published. Without the First Folio, 18 of Shakespeare’s plays would have been lost to time.Ī list of the works in the First Folio. ![]() It sold for $9,978,000 to rare book collector Stephan Loewentheil, making it one of the most expensive books ever sold. In 2020, Oakland, California’s Mills College auctioned off their copy of the First Folio. In 2020, a copy sold for nearly $10 million, making it one of the most expensive works of literature ever sold.īuying a First Folio back when it was first published was a luxury, but these days only millionaires can even consider purchasing one (and even then only when they become available, which is rarely). The most recent one was found in 2016 at Mount Stuart House on the Scottish Isle of Bute. Every so often a copy is rediscovered and added to the list (although nine copies have also somehow gone missing since being catalogued). The Folger Shakespeare Library, in Washington, D.C., has the largest collection of First Folios in the world, clocking in at 82 copies. Many of the 235 copies that are known to exist today are missing pages- only 56 copies contain all 908 pages. Each copy is distinctive, not only because of owners handling and annotating their books, but also because spelling mistakes were made and corrected throughout the printing process. Bound copies were sold for £1 (around $240 in today’s money) and unbound copies sold for 15 shillings (around $150). On November 8, 1623, the First Folio was entered into The Stationer’s Register-which recorded publishing rights-and went on sale. Roughly 750 copies of the First Folio were printed-and 235 have survived to this day. ![]() Shakespeare wasn’t the first playwright to receive the special treatment of a folio edition, though: Ben Jonson published a folio of his own plays in 1616. Plays were typically printed individually in cheaper quarto editions, a small booklet made up of sheets that had been folded twice to yield eight pages. Folios were expensive due to their large size and high quality bindings, so typically, only important texts-usually of a historical, royal, or religious nature-were published in this format. Chris J Ratcliffe/GettyImagesĪ folio was a type of book made by folding paper only once, creating four pages per sheet. Folio describes the book’s physical format. The tome was largely financed by bookseller Edward Blount and it was printed by Isaac Jaggard, who managed the print shop owned by his father, William). They created the book by referring to Shakespeare’s drafts, individually printed editions of his plays, and prompt books (the script of a play along with staging details, such as blocking and sound cues). Two of Shakespeare’s friends, John Heminge and Henry Condell-who were also actors in the King’s Men, the playing company for which the Bard wrote-put together the First Folio as a tribute to their departed friend. Shakespeare had no involvement in the printing of the First Folio because he had died seven years prior, in 1616. Here are 11 facts about the Bard’s momentous First Folio. The impact of the 1623 book is still felt across the arts and the English language to this day: There are over 1000 adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays-making him the most filmed author in history-and his works contain the first recorded usage of many words. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, the more than 900-page tome collected together 36 of the Renaissance writer’s plays for the first time. This year marks the 400th anniversary of the printing of William Shakespeare’s First Folio, a key moment in literary history.
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