![]() ![]() ![]() It was a packed five days: stimulating lectures demonstrations of type founding, composing, and printing – including my own use of a hand-press to print my own small octavo (8 leaf) booklet and hours of time spent in the world-class special collections of UVA (which boast, among many other rare incunables, two printings of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a dazzlingly bizarre, 15th-century rendition of a shady monk’s (1) lovesick dream written in a turgid mix of coined Latin, Greek, and Italian, and filled with unusual (and frequently suggestive) woodcut illustrations).Ĭlass sizes are kept intentionally small – about 12 students are admitted to each – and each course focuses on its own set of themes, which range from preservation to bibliography to typography to history. Last week, I had the chance to attend RBS, where I took a course on the early history of printed books in Europe. (It is also not restricted to librarians.) It is, simply put, a unique opportunity to delve into what might be called book archaeology. RBS, a well-known program which operates out of the Alderman Library at the University of Virginia, is much more than that. The rest of UVa’s exhibit will be open until the very end of December.Some people call it “summer camp for librarians.” I would never use this phrase to describe Rare Book School, and not only because I have way too much style to do so. ![]() The First Folio will be on display through October 26. HORTON: It's very well informed and very put together which is awesome and I love that it's not just about the first folio but about editorial as a basis which I think is really cool. SCHWARTZBURG: This exhibition looks at how Shakespeare has been transformed in the physical space of the book from I guess our earliest item is 1619, all the way up to 2015. Called “Shakespeare: By the Book,” the exhibit explores Shakespeare in print form. Horton was also a fan of UVA’s own Shakespeare exhibit meant to serve as a complement to the First Folio display. I've also performed some his works like one of my favorites is Twelfth Night and then I also like The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare fan, Caitlin Horton drove almost an hour from Madison County on opening weekend just to get a glimpse of the book she thinks of as literary gold.ĬAITLIN HORTON: I'm a huge fan. In some ways it feels as though it’s memorial tribute to the idea of Shakespeare, the figure of Shakespeare in the 400th year since his death. A lot of people are coming because they feel it's important to come stand in the presence of the volume. SCHWARTZBURG: Obviously the first folio has been a huge draw. SCHWARTZBURG: Our campus is itself a cultural heritage monument so having this artifact that really documents the birth of so much of what we think of as the English language in Shakespeare's plays right here next to Jefferson's grounds is just wonderful.Īnd she says the public response has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Schwartzburg says UVA was an ideal venue to receive the honor. Out of an estimated 750 originally printed copies, a little more than 200 have survived and one has been placed in each of the 50 states and two territories. The book has made its way to UVa grounds as part of a nationwide project in honor of the 400 th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Othello, King Lear, basically Shakespeare's canon of plays is in this volume. Hamlet, All’s Well that Ends Well, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, just to pick some of my own favorites. SCHWARTZBURG: The First Folio includes all of the plays that we know. As she explains, Shakespeare’s First Folio is the first large-format collection of Shakespeare’s plays and represents some of the earliest surviving documentation of many of his most famous plays. Molly Schwartzburg is curator at UVa’s Special Collections Library. MOLLY SCHWARTZBURG: Well first of all, what is a folio? The folio term simply means that the pieces of paper used to make the book have only been folded once. WMRA’s Sefe Emokpae tells us more about why the book is at Thomas Jefferson’s university and what makes it such a big deal.įor the month of October, the University of Virginia is hosting one of the surviving copies of William’s Shakespeare’s First Folio. If you haven’t made it out to see it already, William Shakespeare’s First Folio will be on display at the University of Virginia until the end of this month. ![]()
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