Shakespeare First Folio (SSS.10.6)

Possibly one of the most famous and influential books ever published, the so-called First Folio was the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays and the primary source text for at least half of them. It was assembled after his death by his colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell. 'Folio' refers to the large format of the book in which the sheet of paper is folded only once to create four pages. Plays were usually published in smaller quarto-sized editions (where the sheet is folded four times). Producing a folio edition was a mark of the prestige associated with Shakespeare's work. This copy of the First Folio was given to Cambridge University Library by the book collector Samuel Sandars (1837–1894).