First Folios Compared: Introduction to the Guests, Project, and Scope

Sponsored by AM

Recorded on 08/09/2023
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 340

Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, or the First Folio, collects 36 of the playwright’s works, including his most celebrated plays like Macbeth, The Tempest, and Hamlet. Published seven years after his death, the First Folio is considered an authoritative and highly significant collection in scholarship on Shakespeare’s life, plays, and literature writ large.

This past spring, AM released First Folios Compared, an open access project that brings together more than 40 copies of the First Folio—of which only 233 still survive today. In this series, Claudine Nightingale, Publisher, and Ana Attrill-Klein, Quartex Product Specialist, both of AM, discuss the editorial scope and technological features of the project. They dig into how researchers can use the platform to compare the First Folio copies side-by-side, studying unique differences in the annotative marks, ink color, and overall quality. Further, Ana walks through how the Quartex platform supports the detailed metadata and comparison tools, while Claudine chats about the range of institutions included in the project, supplementary materials like a beginner’s guide, and additional Folios that will be added later this year.

In the first episode of this four-part series, Claudine and Ana share their roles at AM and in the First Folios project. They explain the import of the First Folio to Shakespearean studies, and provide some background on First Folios Compared’s intended audience, technical groundwork, and the process of recruiting institutions to participate.

About the guests:

Claudine Nightingale headshot

Claudine Nightingale
Publisher
AM

Claudine Nightingale is a Publisher at AM. Based in the Editorial Development management team, she has particular responsibility for guiding editorial strategy on theatre, literature, arts and culture content, as well as guiding the company’s audio and AV content strategy. Before moving to AM in 2014, Claudine was Editor of Teaching Drama and Early Music Today magazines, and Head of Directories at Rhinegold Publishing. Earlier in her career, she worked at an independent book publisher in an editorial and rights sales capacity. She has also worked as a freelance editor, journalist and reviewer for a range of arts publications and websites.

Ana Attrill-Klein headshot

Ana Attrill-Klein
Quartex Product Specialist
AM

Ana Attrill-Klein is a Product Specialist for AM’s digital collections platform, Quartex. She has five years’ experience in libraries and archives, alongside an MSc in Information Management. As a qualified librarian, it’s her mission to ease the technological pain points of library and archive practitioners so that users can connect to primary sources easier than ever before.

Enjoy the conversation? Listen to the rest of the series:

Check out our previous series with AM:
– The Impact of Primary Sources on Lesbian Literature and History
– Primary Source Literacy

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