Folios @ 400

When I went to Oxford last year and had the honour of visiting several of the college’s Harry Potter-esque libraries, some of them dating back to the 15th century, I was beyond thrilled to be in the presence of so many old books. They were huge and beautiful and thick and glorious and full of KNOWLEDGE, and they smelled absolutely divine.

Here I am with a friend from my camp days, now a Classics professor at Magdalen College:

Imagine my excitement to learn that the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library here in young Toronto was celebrating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s Folios, the first published in 1623!

It did not take much to entice one of my most literary friends to join me for the one-day-only event on July 27, 2023. We hurried over with great anticipation to the Fisher Library’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, down in the musty basement of the building.

There on a table were four of Shakespeare’s original Folios! And we could touch them and turn the pages! Only one other library in all of Canada has any folios at all and apparently not in nearly good shape. We both had gooseflesh, and she even videoed in her English husband, who was back in Europe visiting family. (He was quite jealous.)

There were other Folios there too, this one the latest at 1685:

I could not resist turning the pages of one of the Folios to Othello (also known as The Tragedy of Othello, Moor of Venice):

I then flipped (very gently!) to The Merchant of Venice:

This one is from 1632:

As my friend and I headed home, sated on Shakespeare, we marveled at out our good fortune to be in the presence of these biblio-giants, particularly here in North America.

For a literary lover and a historical novelist, there was no better place to be on that sultry Thursday than in the dusty basement of a rare book library paying homage to the Bard.