The Queen's College Record 2023
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Reports and <strong>College</strong> Activities<br />
Credit: John Cairsns<br />
A YEAR IN THE LIBRARY<br />
Dr Matthew Shaw<br />
<strong>College</strong> Librarian<br />
<strong>The</strong> anniversary of one of the world’s most famous books<br />
has provided a thread through much of the Library’s year.<br />
In 1623 the printers Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount<br />
released Mr William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &<br />
Tragedies, seven years after the playwright’s death. Often<br />
now referred to as the ‘First Folio’ – a reference to the large<br />
size of its paper – it helped to consolidate Shakespeare’s<br />
reputation and included 18 of his previously unpublished<br />
plays, including <strong>The</strong> Tempest and Macbeth. It is possible<br />
that without the Folio, these would have been lost to us.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>College</strong> benefits from possessing one of the 235 surviving Folios (along with<br />
further editions published in 1632, 1664 and 1685), and as such in <strong>2023</strong> joined in<br />
the celebrations of the 400 th anniversary of its publication with a range of activities.<br />
Our English Renaissance Literature students were able to examine (with great care)<br />
the Folio in the Library, with the assistance of the <strong>College</strong> Librarian and Career<br />
Development Fellow in English Dr Jennifer Edwards; and the outgoing Artistic<br />
Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Greg Doran, came to look at it as part<br />
of his earth-girdling attempt to visit every surviving Folio. On Sunday 21 April, we<br />
welcomed over 250 visitors to the Magrath Room, where the Folio was on display<br />
in a wooden case, especially constructed by the <strong>College</strong>’s joiner, Paul Farnes, to<br />
mark what is traditionally considered to be Shakespeare’s birthday and declared in<br />
this anniversary year ‘Folio Day’, in which as many Folios as possible were on public<br />
display. Later in Trinity Term, the Folio made the unusual journey to Stationers’ Hall<br />
in the City of London for a memorable Old Members event, where it was displayed<br />
next to the Company’s register that recorded its publication in 1623. <strong>The</strong> Folio also<br />
attended a fascinating translation symposium in the Shulman Auditorium, in which<br />
junior members worked through various ‘back translations’ (that is, translating back<br />
into the original language from an existing translation). A display on works identified<br />
by scholars as source material, ‘Shakespeare’s Books’ opened in the Upper Library<br />
during the Easter Vacation and runs through Michaelmas Term.<br />
<strong>The</strong> library has also shared something of the richness of the <strong>College</strong>’s textual treasures<br />
through other exhibitions. ‘Edmund Halley In Print’ celebrated the 350 th anniversary of<br />
the astronomer’s matriculation at Queen’s, and included the rare – and rarely seen –<br />
star map of the southern skies, which Halley produced after leaving the <strong>College</strong> before<br />
completing a degree. Newly conserved, fewer than 30 copies survive. Bringing some<br />
cheer into the overcast days of Hilary Term, a lavishly bound New Testament in Greek<br />
that was once presented to Queen Elizabeth I was displayed in the New Library. Even in<br />
a gloomy February, light levels meant that this velvet-bound text could only be displayed<br />
for one week, which did make the display something of an occasion. <strong>The</strong> case then<br />
40 <strong>The</strong> Queen’s <strong>College</strong> | <strong>College</strong> <strong>Record</strong> <strong>2023</strong>