Culture | With a little help from his friends

Shakespeare’s First Folio assembled the world’s greatest literature

Published 400 years ago, the book fixed the playwright’s canon for posterity

shakespeare folio
Image: Victoria and Albert Museum

Not much in European trade runs the same way now as it did four centuries ago. However, English-language publishers still advertise future titles at the Frankfurt Book Fair—just as they did in 1622. In that year, a catalogue of forthcoming English works featured an intriguing volume, announced between blurbs for a biblical commentary and a genealogical tome. It alerted potential buyers to the imminent appearance of “Plays, written by M. William Shakespeare, all in one volume, printed by Isaack Jaggard, in fol[io].”

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “With a little help from his friends”

From the April 22nd 2023 edition

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