Shakespeare Lovers Everywhere Will Freak Out When They Find Out What Was Just Discovered
by N/A, 10 years ago |
3 min read
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Librarians in France have made an astonishing discovery that all literature lovers are going to freak out over.
Librarians at the St. Omer Public Library in Northern France found a surprising relic while prepping for a presentation on English literature.
The librarians at St. Omer called in Eric Rasmussen, a Shakespeare expert who flew from the U.S. to France to examine their findings.
The librarians had discovered Shakespeare's first folio, which is a large volume of his early works, all collected within one book.
The cover and title pages were both torn off, but the rest of the folio was found in good condition.
"This is huge," Rasmussen told The New York Times. "First folios don't turn up very often, and when they do, it's usually a really chewed up, uninteresting copy. But this one is magnificent."
The folio ages back to 1623 and contains 36 of his plays as well as a portrait, descriptions of nobility at the time, a list of principal actors and pieces of writing about Shakespeare by other writers.
800 copies of the folio were released in 1623.
Today its value exceeds $5 million.
23 copies have been accounted for, each one is slightly different from the next.
Some copies have personalized inscriptions and handwritten notes about how the plays should be performed.
The folio will be on display at the St. Omer Library.
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