The four Shakespeare folios : copy, print, paper, type / edited by Samuel V. Lemley

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Lemley, Samuel V. (Samuel Vincent), editor.

Series:

Penn State series in the history of the book

The Penn State series in the history of the book

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Bibliography--Folios.

Shakespeare, William.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

University Park, Pennsylvania : Penn State University Press ; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania : Carnegie Mellon University Libraries, [2024]

Summary:

"Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, more widely known as the First Folio, contains thirty-six of the thirty-eight plays attributed in whole or in part to Shakespeare. Published in 1623, it has been the object of continued scholarly focus, while three subsequent folio printings--occurring in 1632, 1663/64, and 1685--are often considered mere derivatives of the First. This volume endeavors to correct and give nuance to this view. Considering the evolution of Shakespeare in print through these successive Folios, this book seeks a new direction for Shakespeare bibliography--one that trends toward more discursive, contingent, and embodied evidence and away from questions of textual priority. Written by leading scholars of Shakespeare in print, the chapters present an overview of current research and relate new work on unsettled questions about the bibliography of Shakespeare's plays. This book challenges the view that the survival of Shakespeare's plays was due primarily to the survival of the First Folio. Rather, the four Folios each contributed to the gradual elevation of Shakespeare in the English literary canon"-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Publishing the four folios / Andrew Murphy

Paper, type, and labor : making the first folio / Claire M. L. Bourne

The Droeshout portrait and the title page / Erin C. Blake

“Folio” and format : supersizing Shakespeare / Tara L. Lyons

Surviving Shakespeare : or, what we can learn from 3,000 copies and 382 fragments of the plays and poems / Zachary Lesser

Everything there is to be learned about seventeenth-century types : computational bibliography and the fourth folio’s printers / Samuel V. Lemley, Nikolai Vogler, Christopher N. Warren, D. J. Schuldt, Laura S. DeLuca, Kari Thomas, Taylor Berg-Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth Dieterich, Kartik Goyal, Max G’Sell

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from EPUB title page (OAPEN, viewed July 9, 2026)

ISBN:

9780271097800

0271097809

OCLC:

1458817469

Access Restriction:

Some versions: Open access versions available from some providers open access