Heritage et AL

Over the past few weeks the Central City Library has been host to two talks in a series of events to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 1616, with two more events scheduled. In conjunction with the Pop-up Globe we have had some outstanding speakers who have brought a range of perspectives and expertise to these events. For those who have missed it, the first talk, Shakespeare from page to stage , has been uploaded to the Auckland Libraries YouTube channel . See Miles Gregory, Artistic Director of Pop-up Globe and director of Twelfth night , Professor Tom Bishop from the University of Auckland and Ben Naylor, director of Romeo and Juliet in conversation with Auckland Libraries’ own Iain Sharp .

Today, October 25, marks the 600 year anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, a major English victory in the Hundred Years’ War won by King Henry the Fifth. This gives us a great excuse to have a look at a couple of our editions of Shakespeare’s Henry V. The play Henry the Fifth as we now know it first appeared in 1623 in what is known as the First Folio . Ref: William Shakespeare, First Folio Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories & tragedies, pp.68-69, 1623, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1623 SHAK.

At the beginning of February Auckland Libraries resurrected our Instagram account. It gives us in the Heritage and Research teams a great channel to show off heritage collections and exhibitions that are happening around Auckland Libraries. Some of our contributions  from the heritage collections  have been photographs, illuminated manuscripts, vintage advertising from the ephemera collection , maps and even some images of incunabula and rare books.  The most recent post featuring our heritage collections showed the second to last book to bear the Kelmscott Press imprint: Love is enough: or, The freeing of Pharamond by William Morris. The illustration below was designed by Edward Burne-Jones and engraved on wood by WH Hooper; the borders are by Morris. Ref: William Morris, Love is enough, 1897, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, PR:KELM 1897.

There are  a number of Shakespearean treasures in the Sir George Grey Special Collections at the Central City Library. Many of these are from the founding collections donated by Sir George Grey in 1882. The First Folio was the first edition to collect together 36 of Shakespeare's plays and is a highly prized publication. Without it, Shakespeare's plays would be lost to us. The publication was edited by the actors John Hemminge and Henry Condell and only about 1,000 copies were originally printed. The library's First Folio is one of just three in the Southern Hemisphere and one of only 228 remaining copies in the world. Thanks to Grey's donation, we are also the only library in NZ with a rare First Folio and a contemporary quarto of one of the plays (Pericles, 1619). The library also hold many publications by Shakespeare's contemporaries, such as Ben Jonson, Edmund Spenser and John Donne. Dr. Emma Smith of Hertford College, University of Oxford University...