Editing Folger Shakespeare Library (section)

===Collection===
The Folger houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare-related material, from the 16th century to the present. The library is best known for its 82 copies of the 1623 [[First Folio]] (of which only 235 known copies survive)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.folger.edu/publishing-shakespeare/first-folio |title=The First Folio &#124; Folger Shakespeare Library |access-date=2018-03-16 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316151911/https://www.folger.edu/publishing-shakespeare/first-folio |archive-date=2018-03-16 }}</ref> and over 200 [[quarto]]s of Shakespeare's individual plays. Not restricted to Shakespeare, the Folger owns the world's third largest collection of English books printed before 1641, as well as substantial holdings of [[Continental Europe|continental]] and later English imprints.<ref>''Infinite Variety,'' p. 95.</ref><ref>See also [http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=506 "The Collection"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071225231522/http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=506 |date=2007-12-25 }} on the Folger site.</ref> The collection includes a wealth of items related to performance history: 250,000 playbills, 2,000 promptbooks, costumes, recordings and props. It also holds upwards of 90,000 paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, sculptures and other works of art.<ref name="folger.edu">{{cite web |url=http://www.folger.edu/the-collection |title=The Collection |date=4 December 2014 |access-date=2015-07-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626071829/http://www.folger.edu/the-collection |archive-date=2015-06-26 }}</ref>

The Folger's first catalog of its collection began in 1935, when Edwin Willoughby, a scholar of [[library science]] and the First Folio, began to catalog the book collection based on [[Alfred W. Pollard]] and [[Gilbert Richard Redgrave]]'s [[English Short Title Catalogue|''Short-Title Catalogue'']]. Though Willoughby developed a unique [[Library classification|classification system]] based on the Folger's needs, in the late 1940s the Folger adopted that of the [[Library of Congress Classification|Library of Congress]].{{sfn|Grant|2014|p=189}} In 1996, Folger staff and readers were given access to Hamnet, the collection's online catalog; the site became available to the public in 2000.<ref name=Grant2014-200 /> Hamnet was retired in June 2022.<ref>[https://www.folger.edu/blogs/collation/happy-retirement-hamnet/ "Happy Retirement, Hamnet!"] by Erin Blake, June 30, 2022, Folger Shakespeare Library</ref>

====Printed books====
[[File:Folger Vault.jpg|thumb|250px|Rare books stored in the Folger's Vault]]

In all, the library collection includes more than 250,000 books, from the mid 15th century—when the [[printing press]] was invented—to the present day. In addition to its 82 [[First Folio]]s, 229 early modern quartos of [[Shakespeare's plays]] and [[William Shakespeare#poems|poems]] and 119 copies of the [[Second Folio|Second]], Third, and Fourth Folios, the Folger holds some 7,000 later editions of Shakespeare from the 18th century to present, in more than 70 different languages.<ref>"Folger Shakespeare Library", ''New Encyclopædia Britannica'', Chicago: Micropædia, 15th edition, 2007, Volume 4.</ref> Beyond its Shakespearean texts, the library's collection includes over 18,000 early English books printed before 1640 and another 29,000 printed between 1641 and 1700. The library holds 35,000 early modern books printed on the European continent, about 450 of which are [[incunabula]]. The topics of these texts vary widely, ranging across literature, politics, religion, technology, military history and tactics, medicine, and over 2,000 volumes on the Protestant [[Reformation]].<ref name="folger.edu"/>

====Manuscripts====
The Folger holds some 60,000 [[manuscript]]s (from [[Elizabeth I]] and [[John Donne]] to [[Mark Twain]] and [[Walt Whitman]]).<ref>[[Heather Wolfe|Wolfe, Heather]] (ed. and compiler), ''"The Pen's Excellencie": Treasures from the Manuscript Collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library,"'' Washington, D.C.: Folger Shakespeare Library (distributed by University of Washington Press, Seattle), 2002, p. 10 for total number; pp. 51, 151, 183, and 196 for Elizabeth I, Donne, Twain, and Whitman.</ref> These handwritten documents date from the 15th to the 21st century and cover a variety of subjects: documents related to performance history and literature, personal correspondences, wills, love letters, and other materials of daily life. Notable manuscripts include the [[Macro Manuscript|earliest known staging diagram]] in England, a list of quotations [[George Eliot]] compiled while writing ''[[Middlemarch]]'', the 18th-century Shakespeare forgeries of [[William Henry Ireland]], and the papers of legendary 18th-century actor [[David Garrick]].

The Folger hosts Early Modern Manuscripts Online (EMMO), an [[Institute of Museum and Library Services|IMLS]]-grant funded project to digitize and transcribe English manuscripts from the 16th and 17th centuries in a freely available digital collection. EMMO holds conferences, [[paleography]] classes, "transcrib-athons", and other events at the Folger and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://collation.folger.edu/2013/11/emmo-early-modern-manuscripts-online/ |title=EMMO: Early Modern Manuscripts Online |last1=Wolfe |first1=Heather |date=26 November 2013 |website=The Collation |publisher=Folger Shakespeare Library |access-date=18 August 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905232617/http://collation.folger.edu/2013/11/emmo-early-modern-manuscripts-online/ |archive-date=5 September 2015 }}</ref>

====Highlights of the collection====
[[File:First Folio - Folger Shakespeare Library - DSC09660.JPG|thumb|The [[First Folio]] on display at the library's museum]]
Significant items in the Folger's collection include:
* The only extant complete copy of Shakespeare's ''[[Titus Andronicus]]'' first quarto, published in 1594
* The [[False Folio]]
* The [[Macro Manuscript]], a unique source for the three early [[morality plays]]: ''[[The Castle of Perseverance]]'', ''[[Mankind (play)|Mankind]]'' and ''[[Wisdom (play)|Wisdom]]''. The manuscript also contains the earliest known staging diagram for any play in England.
* The [[Dering Manuscript]], a single-play redaction of ''[[Henry IV, Part 1]]'' and ''[[Henry IV, Part 2]]'' that is the earliest known manuscript for any of Shakespeare's works.
* The [[Ashbourne portrait]], the basis of several [[Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship|Oxfordian]] arguments
* [[Henry VIII]]'s childhood copy of [[Cicero]]'s ''[[De officiis]]'', bearing an inscription in his hand, "Thys boke is myne Prynce Henry"
* The Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608, an oversized illustrated manuscript of 594 pages, depicting everything from the mundanities of daily life to biblical stories to contemporary political history
* The earliest [[Portraiture of Elizabeth I of England#The Virgin Queen|''Sieve Portrait'']] of Queen [[Elizabeth I]]
* Thirteen of [[John Donne]]'s letters detailing the personal crisis he faced upon marrying Anne More without her father's permission
* Thousands of pages of letters to and from prolific 18th-century actor [[David Garrick]]
* A large and significant collection of letters, mostly sent to the influential German Shakespeare scholar F. A. Leo (1820–1898), many of which related to the early history of the [[Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft|German Shakespeare Society]], as well as a selection of German-language documents relating to Shakespeare. This collection was organized and edited by [[Werner Habicht]].