The title page of Arthur Rackham's 1908 edition of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
Rare books formerly housed at the Shakespeare Institute Library are currently located at the Cadbury Research Library, at the University of Birmingham Edgbaston campus. The rare books can be searched for on our library catalogue.
In addition to these rare books, the Cadbury Research Library is extremely proud to act as the custodian of a Shakespeare First Folio (1623). The First Folio is hugely important as it marks the first time a collection of Shakespeare’s plays was published. The First Folio contains 36 plays in total; 18 of those plays, including The Tempest, Macbeth, and The Taming of the Shrew, had not been published before their appearance in the First Folio. Without the First Folio, which was published only seven years after Shakespeare’s death, the text for these plays may have been lost and may not exist today.
This particular copy of the First Folio has the citation reference: West, A.J. Shakespeare first folio, 220. The library catalogue record for the First Folio at Cadbury Research Library can be viewed in full. The First Folio is available for all interested researchers to request and view at Cadbury Research Library, under the standard visiting and access conditions.