University of Western Australia: Institute of Advanced Studies Public Lecture
““for Harry, England, and” … everyone: the Many Lives of the Bodleian First Folio of Shakespeare’s Plays”, Pip Willcox (Curator of Digital Special Collections, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford)

Date: 6 August, 2014
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: Webb Lecture Theatre, Geography Building (ground floor), UWA
Parking: P18 & 20, via Fairway entrance 3
Cost: Free, but RSVP essential. RSVP – Book a seat

A copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio arrived at the Bodleian Library in 1623. Why and when did it leave? What chance brought it back in 1905? What had happened to it in the meantime? This lecture tells its curious stories, from its arrival in Oxford, through its two public campaigns (1905 and 2012), conservation and digitization, and current serial publication in searchable text form, to the apple pip languishing in the pages of Henry VI Part 2.

The remarkable story of perhaps the most-read copy of one of the world’s most iconic books is a window on literary, social, and physical book history. Read it online, and come and be part of its story!

Pip Willcox is the Curator of Digital Special Collections at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. With a background in scholarly editing, she collaborates with colleagues to support research, managing projects, offering consultancy, and enabling online access to rare books and manuscripts. She is an advocate for knowledge exchange and public engagement within and beyond the humanities, with a particular focus on the digital. Recent collaborative projects include Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership, the Shakespeare Quartos Archive, the Stationers’ Register Online, the public campaign Sprint for Shakespeare and the Bodleian First Folio project.

Pip is also a 2014 Institute of Advanced Studies Short-Stay Visiting Fellow.