WASHINGTON: In the canon of western literature, William Shakespeare’s First Folio is “the jewel of our house”. Published by the playwright’s colleagues in 1623, just a few years after his death, this extraordinary book contains 36 plays and is the sole source for such immortal works as Macbeth, The Tempest and As You Like It. Without the First Folio, the western theatre, culture and the very language would be incalculably impoverished.

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washingtin has 82 First Folios — about a third of the copies believed to exist. For decades, scholars have travelled here to study these rare books in the library’s environmentally controlled vault, deep underground.

But now the Folger has announced an ambitious plan to set the books free. To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 1616, the library will loan a First Folio to every state in the union, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

“We do things that are vital for scholars all the time,” says the Folger’s director, Michael Witmore. “But this is the one that will have the greatest impact on the public.”

To insure that as many people as possible have a chance to see this travelling exhibit, the organisers are encouraging libraries, museums, historical societies and other cultural venues to apply to host a free four-week display in their state or territory. The express purpose of this programme is to reach an audience beyond scholars — or billionaire collectors like Paul Allen, who bought a First Folio in 2001 for more than $6 million.

Already two years in the making, the 2016 exhibit is a complex collaboration with the American Library Association and the Cincinnati Museum Center, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

But moving tens of millions of dollars’ worth of rare books around the US for a year sounds like a risk that would make any rare book conservator cry “strange screams of death”. Aren’t these First Folios “beauty too rich for use”?

No, says Folger’s exhibitions manager Caryn Lazzuri. “We’re not preserving these things just so they can be closed in a basement for the next 400 years. We’re a private research institution, but we’re also a public institution. We’re taking these books outside of the vault, and we’re sharing them with people, which is central to the mission of just about every library I can think of.”

In the next breath, she admits, “The logistics of it are a little bit intense. We have not done anything this big before.”

To be selected as a host site, organisations must propose a series of Shakespeare-related programmes for scholars and the public in their own communities. Beyond that, they must demonstrate an ability to keep the book safe. The Folger will help by providing insurance, a specially designed case and curatorial instructions. Each site must have professional guards present whenever the venue is open to the public, and specific environmental conditions must be maintained: 65 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit, or 18 to 23 degrees Celsius, 45 to 52 per cent humidity and relatively low light.

Over the course of 2016, 18 First Folios will be transported around the country by the Cincinnati Museum Center, which is also helping to design a set of large panels that explain the significance of Shakespeare and “this most goodly book”.

In each venue, the folio will be opened to Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy. “We considered a couple of different plays,” Lazzuri says, “but Hamlet is so well known, and that speech is one of the most taught passages.” It also makes for a fascinating presentation on variations in the surviving texts: In the 1603 first quarto, for instance, Hamlet says, “To be or not to be; aye, there’s the point.”

Another consideration was identifying enough First Folios in the collection that are travel-ready — something only a library with 82 to choose from could do. The Folger curators looked for copies that could open well to Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1; that had clear type on the page showing his famous soliloquy; and that didn’t have unique marginalia, which would make the book too valuable to leave the library.

“I’m both excited and nervous about it,” Lazzuri says. “If something goes wrong, it’s probably my fault.”

Don’t worry. As someone once said, “All’s well that ends well.”

—By arrangement with The Washington Post

Published in Dawn, July 10th , 2014