One of the most sought after books in the world, Shakespeare's First Folio, recently turned up in a library in France.
The First Folio, published in 1623 (seven years after Shakespeare's death), is a first edition of the collected plays of Shakespeare. So far, only 233 copies of the book remain. The First Folio is also responsible for sharing MacBeth with the world, a play that would have been otherwise lost.
Librarian Remy Cordonnier found this latest copy while preparing an exhibition on English literature for his town of Saint-Omer in France.
The First Folio is in good condition, but is missing around 30 pages, including its title page. This is probably why it sat in the library without being recognized for such a long period of time.
"It was very emotional to realize we had a copy of one of the most famous books in the world," says Cordonnier. "I was already imagining the reaction it would cause."
First Folios are the only surviving manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays, and each contains variances from each other. In some, dialogue is different, including changes in words. For example, in Henry IV, in one folio, the word "hostess" was "host" and "wench" was "fellow," suggesting that a female character was changed to a male character in at least one performance of the play.
The more folios Shakespeare scholars have in their possession, the better we can authentically recreate the words written by the bard himself.
Each folio also represents a fan of Shakespeare's work. Not only can the folios tell us about the plays themselves, but also about those who appreciated the playwright's work.
First Folios are nearly impossible to come by and tales of their recovery read like an Indiana Jones movie. Shakespeare expert Eric Rasmussen, from the University of Nevada, recently wrote a book, The Shakespeare Thefts, about his own hunt for copies of the book. In that novel, Rasmussen describes "run-ins with heavily tattooed criminal street gangs in Tokyo, bizarre visits with eccentric, reclusive billionaires, and intense battles of wills with secretive librarians."
The first Folio found sold at Christie's auction house for $6.8 million. This latest discovery, though, has damage, so would fetch slightly less.
However, the library has no intentions of selling the book. They plan on keeping it with their current collection of antique texts, which also includes books printed in Europe before the 1500s, as well as a rare Gutenberg Bible. The library plans to put it on display for tourists next year.
[Photo Credit: Jessie Chapman/Wiki Commons]
