Two members of the 1623 company The King’s Men helped publish the first collection of plays by the universal English author linked to William Shakespeare. This edition is known as the First Folio, the first complete survey of his works produced seven years after the author’s death. John Heminges and Henry Condell, friends and colleagues, undertook the project out of admiration and because Shakespeare had left them enough money to carry it forward.
From this four centuries ago, and despite many reprints, the First Folio remains the most reliable source for Shakespeare’s writing. Without it, as many as eighteen of his works might have been lost. The titles preserved include The Tempest, Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors, Julius Caesar, The Taming of the Shrew, and Antony and Cleopatra.
In recognition of the book’s lasting impact, the Thalis research group of the University of Alicante (Transhistorical Anglophone Literary Studies) is preparing a volume of essays for the four-hundredth anniversary of the First Folio. This volume is being published in collaboration with Editions University of Salamanca and gathers articles from scholars who have earned international reputations in Shakespeare studies across several countries.
Cover of the volume edited by Thalis. INFORMATION
Participants
Experts examining philological, historical, and editorial aspects include Emma Smith of the University of Oxford, Angel Luis Pujante of the University of Murcia, Jonathan Batte of Arizona State University, Evelyn Gajowski of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Sonia Massai of Sapienza University of Rome, Craig Dionne of Eastern Michigan University, Miguel Ramalhete Gomes of the University of Lisbon, Rosa Garcia Periagor of the University of Murcia, Jesus Tronch of the University of Valencia, Marta Cerezo of UNED, and Eric Rasmussen of the University of Nevada, Reno.
Eric Rasmussen will headline the event, presenting Shakespeare’s First Folio revisited in the Quadricentennial essays. The ceremony will take place on Thursday, October 26 at 19:30 at the UA City Headquarters in Alicante, located at San Fernando 40. The talk is titled Going viral with Shakespeare in 400.
Rasmussen’s lecture will explore the journeys and the whereabouts of surviving copies of the First Folio, according to Perni Solutions, the volume’s editor. His work in researching and pursuing the First Folio has earned him wide recognition as a leading expert in the field.
The book inaugurates a series on literary copies. José Antonio Álvarez Amorós serves as general editor, supported by the Thalis research group from the Department of English Philology at the University of Alicante and directed by Professor María Teresa Gómez Reus. The series will include studies on HG Wells edited by Lourdes Ropero and on Edith Wharton by Sara Prieto and Maureen Montgomery.
Cover of Eric Rasmussen in front of a portrait of Shakespeare. INFORMATION
The study of the First Folio has opened a wide field of discoveries. How did the printing press operate in the early modern era? Researchers have even identified specific pages using ultraviolet and multispectral imaging. The Folger edition notes that the First Folio was first introduced to the United States from England.
Notes written in the margins of the Folio have shed light on the 17th century, including entries from the Hutchinson family in the 19th century. Numerous exhibitions worldwide celebrated Shakespeare’s quarter-centennial in 2016 with a tour across all fifty states. In Europe, commemorative events in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy, and Spain marked the publication of Shakespeare and his works in the four-hundredth anniversary.