Preface from the original site

Happy 450th birthday, Shakespeare!

Welcome to the Bodleian First Folio website, where you can view the digital facsimile online, and find out more about this treasured book, Shakespeare, his plays, and how we conserve, curate and digitize books.

Here you can leaf through the original printed pages, and find cameos from well-known Shakespeare lovers, and from researchers and experts who work on this book. We welcome you to join the conversation!

Thanks to the generous support we have received from donors all over the world towards its conservation and digitization, in 2013 we were able to open up our copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio online, one of the greatest treasures in the Bodleian collection, for the study and enjoyment of scholars, schoolchildren and Shakespeare-lovers alike, everywhere – and for free!

In 2014, we are delighted to mark Shakespeare’s 450th birthday by launching the serial publication of digital texts of the First Folio’s plays.

The Project

In August 2012 Vanessa Redgrave helped us launch our public funding campaign to raise £20,000 to conserve, digitize and publish online the Bodleian’s First Folio. Thanks to your generosity in supporting our campaign financially, writing guest blog-posts, and spreading the word to other Shakespeare-lovers, we reached our target before the end of 2012.

Colleagues throughout the Bodleian, from Rare Books, Imaging Services, Conservation and Collection Care, the Bodleian Printing Workshop at the Story Museum, and Bodleian Digital Library Systems and Services, have worked to bring the project to the public, and we are delighted to have launched the digital facsimile on Shakespeare’s 449th birthday, 23 April 2013.

We hope you’ll enjoy sharing one of the Library’s greatest treasures with us.

Let us know what you think: join the conversation!