The 1904 Discovery of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus First Quarto in Sweden

摘要

IN NOVEMBER 1904, LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARY received a letter from Petrus Johannes Krafft enquiring about the value of 'an old book', Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, printed in 1594. The existence of the First Quarto edition was known from John Danter's entry in the Stationers' Register in February 1594 and Gerard Langbaine's An Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691), but no copy had so far been found. It is still unique, and is today one of the most prized possessions of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. Swedish newspapers started reporting on the discovery in the following January, and behind the scenes letters and telegrams negotiated the sale. While an agreement was reached in January 1905 and the volume quickly ended up in Henry and Emily Folger's collection, the Swedish side of the affair was not concluded until almost four years later when, finally, Krafft was able to make a donation to Lund University Library out of the money he had received for the volume.