Exhibition: Shakespeare’s First Folios: a 400-year journey

On 8 November 1623, a book was entered into the register of the Stationers’ Company of London:

Master Blounte, Isaak Jaggard. Entered for their copie … Master William Shakspeers Comedyes, Histories & Tragedyes

This marked the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio– the first for several reasons. It was the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, the first time that 18of those plays were published, and the first time they were categorised as comedies, histories and tragedies. The folio format – a large book where the paper sheets used in its printing are folded only once – was prestigious and unprecedented for a volume dedicated to plays.



The First Folio is one of the most valuable and intently examined in the world and an icon of English literature. It ensured the survival of Shakespeare’s plays and over the last 400 years it has been duplicated, republished and collected in many ways. Senate House Library’s exhibition explores the history of this iconic book through its reproductions as facsimiles, how the text was repackaged and republished and how the book became prized by collectors, including Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence and Sir Louis Sterling, whose First Folios are now treasures of the Library’s collections.

One of the Library’s two First Folio will be on display on selected dates through the exhibition:

20, 21, 23, 27 November

13 December

The exhibition is open Monday to Friday.