This page is devoted to all matters to do with the texts of Shakespeare's plays and poems and will include recent research and documentary 'discoveries'.
Who Edited Shakespeare...? Saul Frampton (Guardian Review 13.07.2013) makes a case for claiming that John Florio (above) was the editor of the First Folio (1623). He is currently writing a book about Florio and Shakespeare: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/12/who-edited-shakespeare-john-florio .Florio (1553–1625), known in Italian as Giovanni Florio, was a linguist and lexicographer, a royal language tutor at the Court of James I, and a possible friend and influence on Shakespeare. He was also the translator of Montaigne into English. He married Aline, the sister of poet Samuel Daniel in 1580.
Among the Treasure of the BodleianExhibition (see entry for 26.09.2011 on the News & Events page) is the Bodleian's copy of Shakespeare's First Folio (pictured left). Details of the item can be viewed at: http://treasures.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/First-Folio-shakespeare . The information is supplemented by a 5-minute video by Dr Emma Smith, Fellow in English, University of Oxford who recounts something of the fascinating history of this particular volume.
The Shakespeare First Folio (1623): Three copies of the First Folio are kept in Stratford-upon-Avon. The full bibliographical descriptions of all three copies are reproduced in separate files below. The descriptions are taken from Anthony James West, The Shakespeare First Folio: The History of the Book, Vol. II.
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