The library’s rich holdings of early English drama include the majority of editions of William Shakespeare published before 1660, mainly through the Halliwell-Phillipps Collection. Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-1899) was a prolific and controversial literary scholar, who built up vast collections on Shakespeare and English literature.

 Now existing as high quality e-readers are the plays Love’s Labours Lost (1^st Quarto Edition) and Romeo and Juliet(2^nd Quarto Edition), both of which are used as part of the collaborative project concerning Shakespeare’s printed quartos, The Shakespeare Quarto Archive (http://www.quartos.org/index.html). These works themselves have very unique histories and are important in Shakespearean studies for many reasons. Their place in the Special Collections in the University of Edinburgh Library is invaluable.

Read more about the digitisation of these two books by the University’s Digital Imaging Unit on their blog

 

Digital Book: Romeo and Juliet, 1599

Digital Book: Love’s Labours Lost, 1598

Browse the digitised Shakespeare collection on LUNA