An original copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio, one of the most important publications in English literature was sold for over $2.5 million. Here is everything you need to know.
What is the First Folio?
First Folio is a published collection of Shakespeare’s plays. It was published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death. Folio editions are large and expensive and seen as prestige items. The compilation of the book was done by John Heminge and Henry Condell. Heminge and Condell were Shakespeare’s partners at the acting company. They worked meticulously to collate the book by cross-referencing from prompt books, working drafts, and authorial fair copy; making it as accurate as possible. Hence, making it as accurate as possible, as none of the original manuscripts of his plays have survived.
Additionally, the duo is also responsible for categorizing Shakespeare’s works into tragedies, histories, and comedies. This is responsible for allowing us to understand the works in a nuanced way. If the document was not collated, iconic dialogues such as “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,” from Julius Caesar and “If music be the food of love, play on,” from ‘Twelfth Night’ would have been lost forever.
More on the auction
However, only 750 copies of the First Folio were ever made. Currently, only 220 are accounted for. Experts believe that the 18 plays in the compilation are not known to have ‘Measure for Measure,’ ‘The Tempest.” and “Twelveth Night’ among other previously printed works.
One of the original copies of the document went under the hammer on July 21, selling for over $2.5 million in New York. The owner of the important piece of publication is a private collector. However, this is not the first time an original copy has gone under the hammer. According to a report, a copy was sold in 2022 for $9.97 million. It smashed the previous record held by a First Folio auction in 2001 for $6.16 million.
