Into the Vault: Books of the 1620s

Imagine yourself in London in the 1620s, visiting shops and stalls of booksellers. In this special exhibition, encounter books from the Folger collection that were printed in the most prominent centers of European book production during the decade in which Shakespeare’s First Folio emerged.

Experience part of the book-making process by folding printed sheets to create folios, quartos, or octavos. You can also flip through our facsimile of First Folio #68 and search for answers to the provided clues.

About the books on display

The books here are all kinds of sizes and contain a range of subjects—histories, sermons, religious doctrine and debate, legal cases, and more.

Some of the books were printed by members of the group that formed to finance and print Shakespeare’s First Folio—William Jaggard and his son Isaac, Edward Blount, John Smethwick, and William Aspley. Fittingly, this special exhibition is located directly across from the First Folio Gallery in the Shakespeare Exhibition Hall, which contains the Folger’s collection of 82 First Folios, the largest in the world.

About “Into the Vault”

“Into the Vault” is the center gallery in the Stuart and Mimi Rose Rare Book and Manuscript Exhibition Hall at the Folger. This gallery features rotating groups of objects, focusing on connections among the objects rather than each individual object; the collection items displayed here have been assembled based on a specific shared characteristic. “Books of the 1620s” is the opening exhibition for the “Into the Vault” gallery.