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UB Libraries joins Buffalo library for wedding of the folios
UB owns a copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, one of the rarest books in existence.
By MARCENE ROBINSON
Published October 10, 2016 This content is archived.
The First Folio, the original printing of legendary playwright William Shakespeare’s canon of works, is one of the rarest books in existence.
Only 234 copies exist in the world, two of which reside in Buffalo: one with the UB Libraries and the other with the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library (B&ECPL).
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the two libraries held a wedding. For the first time, Buffalo’s two First Folios will lay side by side at the Central Library in downtown Buffalo for the public to view.
“For a city to have two complete sets in public institutions is quite unique,” says Michael Basinski, curator of the UB Poetry Collection.
“Bringing these collections together shows the great depth and significance of our cultural heritage and proves that Buffalo is an art capital, especially for literature.”
The complete set of four folios — published between 1623 and 1685 after Shakespeare’s death — are credited with preserving many of the author’s plays, which otherwise would have been lost.
Mary Jean Jakubowsk (far left), director of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, welcomes Marie Elia (striped skirt), a processing archivist in the UB Poetry Collection; Mike Basinski (far right), curator of the UB Poetry Collection; and the UB folios, which arrived from the North Campus via Pierce Arrow. Photo: B&ECPL.
Despite the existence of hundreds of copies, each folio is unique, containing varied markings and modifications, Basinski explains.
“Each one is an object of art themselves,” he says. “That an actor crossed out sections while preparing for a play tells us a lot about the cultural climate of the period. Why would certain paragraphs be crossed out more than 300 years ago?”
By displaying the folios together, the exhibition offers the public the opportunity to see these differences.
As part of what Basinski called an arranged marriage, UB’s set of folios gracefully travelled to its new home on Tuesday in a vintage Pierce Arrow motorcar.
The car was provided courtesy of the Buffalo Pierce Arrow Transportation Museum, an homage to the late Col. Charles Clifton, president and CEO of Pierce-Arrow Motors and donor of the B&ECPL folio set.
UB’s folios were donated by Thomas B. Lockwood, a collector of rare books and benefactor of the university’s original Lockwood Memorial Library.
The two sets of folios are displayed together in the library’s Rare Book Room on the main floor. The honeymoon will extend through January 2017, after which UB’s folio set will return to the university.
The UB Libraries and B&ECPL will host a Shakespeare Jubilee, celebrating the union, from 5-7 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Central Library. The event is free and open to the public.
The evening will feature performance excepts of Shakespeare plays by UB theatre and dance students and students from the Buffalo Public Schools through the Peace of the City’s Shakespeare Comes to (716) program.
Andrew Stott, UB professor of English, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, will serve as master of ceremonies. Tours of the folios display and the B&ECPL’s ongoing “Milestones of Science: Books that Shook the World” exhibition also will take place throughout the evening.
The celebration is a featured event of the UB Humanities Institute’s annual conference, “Object and Adaptation: The Worlds of Shakespeare and Cervantes,” being held Oct. 13-14 in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.