Image of the title page from Shakespeare's First Folio showing an engraving of Shakespeare. Below, a cut out of the Radcliffe Camera in the left corner opposite a coloured portrait of Shakespeare. Overlaid with text reading
'The Bodleian and Shakespeare have a tumultuous past...
Yesterday, for April Fools’ Day, we posted about getting rid of our copy of Shakespeare’s first folio. Whilst this was a prank, you may be shocked to learn it was based on genuine Bodleian history' followed by a graphic with an arrow saying 'read more'.
Portrait of Sir Thomas Bodley on a Bodleian Blue background. with a speech bubble describing his views on plays 'some plaies may be worthy the keeping; but hardly one in fortie'.
Surrounding text reads: 'Our first librarian and namesake, Sir Thomas Bodley had a contemptuous opinion of plays in general, describing them as ‘riffe raffes’ and ‘baggage bookes’. He grudingly allowed that ‘happely some plaies may be worthy the keeping: but hardly one in fortie’.
As such, we didn’t get our first copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio until 7 years after his death. When we acquired the Third Folio in 1664 the First Folio was seen as superfluous and was sold off. 😬 '
A graphic featuring collaged photographs of the Bodleian's copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, showing the folio itself, the inside cover which is torn and damaged, and a close up of the mottled leather binding.
A heading reads '241 years later...' then 'in 1905, an undergraduate brought his families' copy of the First Folio to Bodleian staff to ask for advice on repairing the binding. Staff quickly established that not only was this an authentic first edition... ...but that it was actually the very same copy which had been sold off in 1664.'
The fourth side shows a picture of a relatively undamaged page from the folio, the first page of A Midsommer Nights Dream, overlaid with an image of the American Shakespeare collector Henry Folger.
Text reads: Unfortunately for us, the Shakespearean collector Henry Folger caught wind of the discovery.
He swept in and offered the undergraduate £3,000 for the Folio. In an attempt to match this eye-watering sum, we published an open letter in The Times, desperately seeking donations.
In an early success story for crowd-funding we were ultimately able to return the Folio to our collection! Where it will remain preserved for current and future generations.
We did WHAT with our copy of #Shakespeare 's #FirstFolio? 🤯
