AN ORIGINAL BIFOLIUM FROM THE 1632 SECOND FOLIO. From One of the Most Important of all the Shakespeare plays: "HAMLET"

From the Second Folio of Shakespeare. A sheet rescued from a single folio still bearing a copy of its original title page naming Robert Allot who was owner of the rights to sixteen plays. The text on this bifolium includes one of the great lines of Shakespeare, one which we all love to quote, see the provided close-up image to find it. Bi-Folium, a complete bifolium, with two folio leaves still attached and unseparated. 4 pp., 273, 274, 275, 276. A large and very well preserved copy of this very rare and unusual survival, original sewing holes and any other tiny imperfections expertly perfected, according to the exacting standards established by the American Institute of Conservation.

Edizione: a rare offering from the second folio. a rare offering from the second folio. made at thomas cotes' print shop, located at the signe of the blacke beare in pads church-yard. this is an example that few have ever seen but for the original 17th century purchasers and binders of cotes' loose sheets and, in later centuries, folio conservators or binders working on the rare individual sheet that only remained in sheet form until being rebound back into its folio for use as numbered pages. it also originates from one of the first two folio editions of 1623 and 1632, of which only 1500 or so total combined copies were printed. with the hindsight of 400 years, sheets were something that no one thought to preserve in 1632, these folio sheets were printed specifically for binding into complete copies of the second folio. ironically, extra sheets would probably have been considered "printer's waste" and discarded, or perhaps given away as "mementos".