Curtain up on Bard’s folio

The first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, published seven years after his death, in 1623, is to go on display in Edinburgh this week.

The First Folio is one of the highlights of the National Library of Scotland’s winter exhibition, Beyond Macbeth, which explores what England’s bard means to Scotland.

The carefully preserved First Folio is a collection of 36 of Shakespeare’s plays, which were published by actor friends seven years after his death.

It is thought that, without it, some of his plays might never have survived, and editions of the folio are among the most valuable printed books in the world, having sold for up to £3 million. The exhibition opens on Friday and runs to April 29.