First Folio
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Image:First Folio.jpg The First Folio is the name given to the first published collection of William Shakespeare's plays. Containing 36 plays, it was prepared by Shakespeare's colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell in 1623, about 7 years after Shakespeare's death, and sold for 1 pound (about £95 to £110 GBP/$170 to $190 US dollars, adjusted). Its proper title is Mr William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. Although several of Shakespeare's plays had been published in quarto prior to 1623, the First Folio is our only reliable text for some twenty of the plays, and a valuable source text even for many of those previously published.
It is believed that around 1,000 copies of the first folio were printed. The most recent census (1995-2000) records 228 still in existence. The most recent sales (Oriel College Oxford, 2003, for example) have raised in the order of £3.5m.
On July 13, 2006, a complete copy of First Folio will be auctioned off at Sotheby's auction house. The book, which also happens to still be in its original 17th century binding, is estimated to sell for up to $6.1 million dollars. The Folio is one of only about 40 remaining complete copies (as most of the existing copies are incomplete). Even more rare is the fact that the Folio is being offered to private collectors, as only one other copy of the book remains in private ownership.
See also
External links
- First Folio - HTML version of this title.
- First Folio - plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg
- Of Folios and Facsimiles - A discussion of available facsimiles of the First Folio.
- Landmarks in Printing: Shakespeare's First Folio - British Library