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Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies : published according to the true originall copies.
1623

STC 22273 Folio 1 number 1, title page

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STC 22273 Folio 1 number 1, title page
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Images that are under Folger copyright are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This allows you to use our images without additional permission provided that you cite the Folger Shakespeare Library as the source and you license anything you create using the images under the same or equivalent license. For more information, including permissions beyond the scope of this license, see Permissions. The Folger waives permission fees for non-commercial publication by registered non-profits, including university presses, regardless of the license they use. For images copyrighted by an entity other than the Folger, please contact the copyright holder for permission information.

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Creator: William Shakespeare
Title: Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies : published according to the true originall copies.
Date: London : Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount, 1623.
Repository: Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, USA
Call number and opening: STC 22273 Fo. 1 no. 1, title page
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Item Creator
William Shakespeare
Item Title
Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies : published according to the true originall copies.
Item Date
London : Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount, 1623.
Repository
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, USA
Call Number
STC 22273 Fo. 1 no. 1, title page

Institution Rights and Document Citation

Terms of use
Images that are under Folger copyright are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This allows you to use our images without additional permission provided that you cite the Folger Shakespeare Library as the source and you license anything you create using the images under the same or equivalent license. For more information, including permissions beyond the scope of this license, see Permissions. The Folger waives permission fees for non-commercial publication by registered non-profits, including university presses, regardless of the license they use. For images copyrighted by an entity other than the Folger, please contact the copyright holder for permission information.

Copy-specific information
Creator: William Shakespeare
Title: Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies : published according to the true originall copies.
Date: London : Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount, 1623.
Repository: Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, USA
Call number and opening: STC 22273 Fo. 1 no. 1, title page
View online bibliographic record

Heather Wolfe, "The First Folio," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/207.

Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 22273 Folio 1 number 1. See Shakespeare Documentedhttps://doi.org/10.37078/207.

The first collected edition of William Shakespeare’s plays is a celebrated volume known as the "First Folio." It is called a “Folio” because of the large-format size of the book. The First Folio earned its iconic status in part because it contains the plays of an author widely regarded as the world’s greatest playwright and because it is the first edition and sole source for half of those plays. Without the First Folio, we might not have such plays as Julius CaesarMacbeth, and The Tempest. The First Folio also holds the Droeshout portrait, one of only two portraits unambiguously identified as Shakespeare. This well-known portrait is the iconic image of Shakespeare that appears on the title page of the First Folio.

Shakespeare was not the first author to have his collected works published in folio format. His contemporaries—poets and playwrights Samuel Daniel (1601), Edmund Spenser (1609), and Ben Jonson (1616)—also had literary folios published. But, setting him apart as the foremost playwright of his day, Shakespeare’s literary “First Folio” charted new ground in being composed entirely of plays. Since its publication in 1623, the book has gained cultural significance, becoming synonymous with Shakespeare himself.

The title page in the above image is from a First Folio in the collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library. It is the most important of the Folger's 82 copies, in that it is a presentation copy given posthumously from the book's printer, William Jaggard, to Augustine Vincent, an author with whom Jaggard had worked the previous year. It is inscribed "Ex dono Willi Jaggard Typographi. Ao. 1623" in the hand of the recipient, Augustine Vincent, author of A discouerie of errours (London: William Jaggard, 1622). Its provenance links the copy directly to the printing house. 

 

Semi-diplomatic transcription

Ex dono William Iaggard Typographi. anno 1623

Written by Heather Wolfe

Last updated February 23, 2020