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The Folger Shakespeare Library has the world's largest collection of materials relating to Shakespeare and his works, from the 16th century to the present day, as well as a world-renowned collection of books, manuscripts, and prints from Renaissance Europe. The Library actively acquires new materials that build on the strengths of the collection. In the Folger’s state-of-the-art conservation lab, conservators prepare collection material for exhibition and for hands-on study by researchers.

To learn more about the Folger’s collection, please visit their website.

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Documents contributed by Folger Shakespeare Library

1599
Customers browsing in the bookshops of London in 1599 would have found a new version of a popular play based on the well-known story of Romeo and Juliet.
1599
This 1599 printing is the only surviving copy of the sixth edition of Venus and Adonis, first published in 1593.
1599
The title page of the second edition of Henry IV Part 1 identifies William Shakespeare as the play’s author for the first time in print. The practice of including authorial attribution on title pages was becoming increasingly common at the turn of the century.
1600
This is the first edition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, printed by Richard Braddock for Thomas Fisher in 1600. Fisher registered the play on October 8 earlier that same year.
1600
Not all contemporary allusions to Shakespeare were positive. In the second stanza of Tom-Tel Troths Message (1600), John Lane commands his pen to “In mournfull verse lament the faults of men,” particularly in England.

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