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Folger First Folio 55

Detail of printed page showing horizontal printer's ornament above

This was the very first First Folio that Henry and Emily Folger purchased. Several early readers added their signatures to this First Folio. Like many First Folios, it is far from perfect: the pages for The Merry Wives of Windsor come from another First Folio, and part of the introduction is damaged. The first leaf (Ben Jonson’s verse “To the Reader”) and the famous title page with Shakespeare’s portrait are facsimiles.

See its book binding

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View in the digital image collection

See where it traveled on tour in 2016