The University of Delaware Library has announced a Shakespeare series program by the University of Pennsylvania’s Zachary Lesser, who will discuss “Collecting Shakespeare in Folios and Quartos” at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 29, in the Class of 1941 Lecture Room in the Morris Library

Four years before the publication of the First Folio, the printer William Jaggard and the publisher Thomas Pavier attempted to create a different Shakespeare collection in the quarto format familiar to book buyers from their previous encounters with Shakespeare’s plays in print. But something went wrong: the collection seems to have been quashed by higher authorities.

Describing new evidence about this quarto collection that Lesser has discovered hiding in these old books, the talk will contrast these two versions of Shakespeare’s collected works, one that is being widely celebrated this year as the Folger Library folios go on tour, and one that has been largely forgotten — perhaps by design.

Lesser is professor of English at Penn. He is a general editor of The Arden Shakespeare and the author of Hamlet after Q1: An Uncanny History of the Shakespearean Text (Penn Press, 2015) and Renaissance Drama and the Politics of Publication: Readings in the English Book Trade (Cambridge UP, 2004), which won the Elizabeth Dietz Award for the book of the year in early modern studies. With Alan Farmer, he is co-creator of the online resource DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks.

RSVPs are strongly encouraged via email at rsvp-library@winsor.lib.udel.edu, and walk-ins are welcome.

Light refreshments will be provided and the event is free and open to the public.

Special Collections and Museums

Subject strengths of Special Collections of the University of Delaware include history and Delawareana, political papers, science and technology, art, and literature, represented in books, manuscripts, archival collections, electronic materials, maps, prints and photographs from the 15th century to the present. Political papers, family papers to ships’ logs are among the primary source material.

For an introduction to the range of holdings, browse the exhibitions at this website and finding aids for unpublished materials at this site.

The recent merger of Special Collections with the University Museums brought into the collection works of American art of the 20th century (especially prints, photographs and work by African American artists), European prints, Inuit art, Pre-Columbian art and minerals.

Exhibitions are offered in the Special Collections Gallery in Morris Library, Old College Gallery, Mechanical Hall Gallery and in the Mineralogical Museum in Penny Hall.

All exhibitions and accompanying programs are offered to the UD community and general public without charge. Collaborative initiatives and programming with students, faculty and departments across campus foster diversity and enhance interdisciplinary research and teaching. 

For information about Special Collections and Museums as well as current and past exhibitions see the Special Collections website and the University Museums website.