Shakespeare Quarto Archives

Scholarly Digital Libraries

Provides online access across geographical

boundaries

Open access of freely available

Furnishes materials held in various locations

Supplies primary sources for a scholar, educator,

student

Images – captured in high resolution

Text – transcribed and fully searchable

Video – may be primary sources or tutorial

Shakespeare Quartos Archive

Intended audience

Literary scholars

Theatre professionals – actors, directors, playwrights

University students

Educators

Value of Quartos

No manuscripts survive

Quartos are earliest extant copies from

Shakespeare’s lifetime (1567-1616)

They show what Shakespeare probably wrote

About half of Shakespeare’s plays printed as

quartos

Quarto refers to the format or paper folding and

leaves

Formats include: folio, quarto, octavo, duodecimo

Uses of Shakespeare Archive

Quartos are dispersed throughout the world

Archive provides central point of accessing 32

quartos

Scholars and researchers need to examine different

editions for variations in text

Archive provides electronic tools to analyze text

Scholars need annotations and marginalia

Tools Enable

Comparison between two or more texts

Images of pages can be cropped and resized for

study

Search feature allows users to search across all

editions

Cue lines rendered in blue for staging prompts

Site provides tools for notes, labels, and exhibitions

Examples of Functionality

Select a library

Multiple Editions, Locations

1603 Edition, British Library

Multiple Editions, Locations

1637 Edition, National Library of

Scotland

Compare Editions, Copies

British Library, 1603 and Huntington Library, 1603

Compare Editions, Copies

British Library, 1603; Huntington, 1603; Folger,

1604

Textual Comparison

British Library, 1603 and British Library, 1605 Highlight indicates difference in

text

Zoom and Details

British Library, 1603 -- Zoom and Bleeding

Ink

Zoom and Notes

British Library, 1603 and Annotations

Search Across Texts

Huntington, 1604; Search Across All

Texts

Cue Lines -- Actors, Directors

British Library, 1603; Cue Lines

Notation Features

Bodleian Library 1622, Note with Label

Annotation, Print View

Example of notes about possible printer’s errors as reason for

variation

Digitization, Administrative Data

Location of encoding – British Library and Folger Library

Thank you!

Florence Paisey, Spring 2012