Mariam-Supplemental: Folio 65

 As promised, here is the email I sent to the library and the response I got in return:

Original Question

Oct 11 2025, 05:36PM via Email

First Folio 65 Question

Hello,

My friend and I visited the Folger Shakespeare Library last week and I have been wondering about First Folio 65 ever since and I could not find additional information on the website.

The lights indicated it was one of the bargain ones but I was very curious about why it was so thick compared to the others. If they're all a first printing, shouldn't they all be roughly the same size? Did the owner add pictures or something else to it? There was another folio that was also quite thick but I don't remember the number and I'd have the same question about that one. 

Are the contents are digitized somewhere? I'd love to see it.

I was also wondering about the binding. It looks very modern. Do we know anything about why it was bound like that or is that something that was done after it came to the library?

Thank you,

Mariam

The response (links included):

Oct 15 2025, 12:25PM 

Dear Mariam,

Thank you for writing, and for visiting our exhibitions! These are great questions. Folio 65 is actually an assemblage of unbound leaves from multiple copies, interleaved with facsimile pages, so what you see on display is actually a clamshell box that looks like a modern binding. Within that box are thinner folders that contain loose sheets. 

The smaller folders and the clamshell box definitely add bulk, making it look much thicker than the others. Our conservation team supplied these folders and box after this copy came to the library as part of its conservation treatment. 

Unfortunately, Folio 65 has not been digitized, but we do have several others that have been fully digitized: First Folios: Fully Digitized | Digital Collections. 

Please let us know if you have any further questions!

Sincerely,

Library Associate, Reference
Folger Shakespeare Library

Aren't librarians wonderful? I had been hoping I was going to find out that it was full of beautiful illustrations or something like that. But this is pretty cool too. What kept catching my eye was that the part of the box we could see which I assumed was actually binding looked untouched as if the book had never been cracked open. A spine that thick would show some sign of having been opened, I would assume. But now, I understand. It's a boxful of loose papers. 

There was a little game in front of the display that allowed you to pick a folio and learn some details about it and then get to select which one you'd buy if you could. (Or something like that.) Folio 65 was not in the game but I kept picking the cheaper ones as more interesting and then the poll stats would show that everyone else wanted the more expensive stuff. 

I guess I don't have expensive taste, because the one I went down a rabbit hole for is a just a handful of papers, ha! But it's fun.