Introduction

Abstract

The aims of this special issue are to offer a review of the most recent research on the Saint-Omer First Folio of Shakespeare’s works (discovered in the north of France in November 2014): its possessors, tribulations and annotations. Yet, beyond the specificities of this copy, it also focuses on the wider iconic significance of the First Folio – from which it cannot be disentangled and without which the public fervour aroused by the discovery could not be understood. The introduction presents the contributions of six major specialists in the field and discusses some of the First Folio’s cultural, symbolic and material features.