On the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio, rare originals are being displayed and publishers are offering collectors editions, including one that sells for $1,500.
This cover image released by Rizzoli shows Shakespeare's First Folio: 400th Anniversary Facsimile Edition: Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies, Published According to the Originall Copies." – On the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's First Folio, rare originals are being displayed and publishers are offering collectors editions of Shakespeare's plays, including one that sells for $1,500.
First folios have been on exhibit everywhere from the British Museum to the New York Public Library and at least two major book projects will mark the anniversary. The First Folio was daring, even audacious for its time, when such publications were “reserved for learned treatises, hefty genealogical texts, books of religious or historiographical importance, or even works by monarchs,” according to Shakespeare scholar Chris Laoutaris. Before Shakespeare the only playwright known to have been so honored was his contemporary Ben Jonson, who honored himself by overseeing “The Workes of Benjamin Jonson” in 1616.
“For Grey, the First Folio represented the pinnacle of culture, but specifically English culture,” Laoutaris says. “He sought nothing less than the obliteration of the language and culture of the native populations in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, nurturing a desire to replace these with the English language and its literary products."