Digital libraries: A complete digital collection of early editions of “Hamlet” on-line

The highly-anticipated Shakespeare Quartos Archive project was officially launched on November, 17 with a complete digital collection of rare early editions of “Hamlet”.  For the first time, all 32 existing quarto copies (a quarter of the page size) of the play held by participating UK and US institutions are freely available online in one place (www.quartos.org). This initiative is jointly led by the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford and the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC.

Now scholars can explore these different quarto versions side by side for the first time on the project website.  It features high-quality reproductions and searchable full text of surviving copies of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” in quarto in an interactive interface. Functions and tools – such as the ability to overlay images, compare them side-by-side, and mark and tag features with user annotations – facilitate scholarly research, performance studies, and new applications for learning and teaching.

The project, which began in April 2008, reunites all 75 pre-1642 quarto editions of Shakespeare’s plays into a single online collection.