- description
- # Prefatory Note
## Overview
This document is a "Prefatory Note," a piece of front matter that provides introductory information for a larger work. It was extracted from a file named `pdf-01KG6Q7Q25RHMFT3SJXPV18VFF.txt` on January 30, 2026.
## Context
The "Prefatory Note" serves as an introduction to the collection titled "[Venus and Adonis, Lucrece, Sonnets, and Pericles (Facsimile Editions)](arke:01KG6S3KNZT62WVVW4VT384KPF)". This collection is part of a larger project, likely undertaken by Oxford University Press, to provide facsimile reproductions of rare early editions of Shakespeare's works. The note explains that this publication supplements a 1902 facsimile of the First Folio, aiming to present Shakespeare's writings in their most authentic form by including works excluded from the First Folio. The note also details the bibliographical rarity of the included volumes and acknowledges the institutions and individuals who granted permission for the reproduction of specific copies and title pages. The note is dated October 1, 1905.
## Contents
The "Prefatory Note" outlines the purpose of the publication: to provide collotype facsimile reproductions of rare early editions of Shakespeare's poems and plays. It specifically mentions *Venus and Adonis* (1593), *Lucrece* (1594), *Sonnets* (1609), and *Pericles* (1609), as well as *The Passionate Pilgrim* (1599). The note details the provenance of the reproduced copies, crediting the Bodleian Library, the British Museum, Trinity College, Cambridge, and Mrs. Christie Miller of Britwell. It also thanks various individuals for their assistance in the research and preparation of the publication, including collectors and librarians from institutions such as the John Carter Brown Library and the Duke of Devonshire's collection.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T06:25:39.976Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- Prefatory Note
- end_line
- 141
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T06:23:29.729Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 109
- text
- # PREFATORY NOTE
This reproduction in collotype facsimile of the unique copy in the Bodleian Library of Shakespeare's poem of *Venus and Adonis* forms, with the accompanying reproductions of the earliest editions of *Lucrece, Sonnets, The Passionate Pilgrim*, and the play of *Pericles*, a supplement to the facsimile reproduction of the First Folio, which the Oxford University Press issued in 1902. All the compositions which find a place in the present publication were excluded from the First Folio, and this undertaking therefore completes the presentation of Shakespeare's writings in their most authentic shape.
The five volumes which are dealt with here were published in Shakespeare's lifetime in varying conditions, which are described in detail in the editorial introductions. All the volumes are of the highest bibliographical rarity, and in cases
<!-- [Page 13](arke:01KG6QAN1VQKAJP7X4S8FT28NV) -->
6
PREFATORY NOTE
where more than one copy of the first edition exists, that one in the best state of preservation has been chosen for reproduction.
Not merely the first edition of these Shakespearean volumes, but all the reissues of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, survive in very few copies. With a view to perfecting the bibliographical story, reproductions in facsimile are given of the title-pages of the rarest of these reissues.
Thanks are due to the Curators of the Bodleian Library for permission to reproduce the original editions of *Venus and Adonis*, 1593, of *Lucrece*, 1594, of the *Sonnets*, 1609, and of *Pericles*, 1609. Mrs. Christie Miller has generously permitted the reproduction of her copy of *The Passionate Pilgrim*, 1599, which is in the library at Britwell. This volume has not been photographed before, and is in far finer state than the only other copy known—that in the Capell Collection in Trinity College, Cambridge.
Of the fifteen illustrative title-pages, six are reproduced by kind permission of the Curators of the Bodleian Library; five by permission of
<!-- [Page 14](arke:01KG6QAMZHCEM8WKHTEKPGN99W) -->
PREFATORY NOTE 7
the Trustees of the British Museum; three by permission of the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; and one—the *Venus and Adonis* of 1599—by permission of Mrs. Christie Miller of Britwell.
In the case of each of the five works, the editor has endeavoured to give a history of all surviving copies of original editions and of early reissues, as well as to indicate their present homes. In the notes to his introductory essays he has made specific acknowledgement to the many owners who have aided him at particular points in this difficult part of his research. Among those who have given him much general assistance, he feels it right to mention here the American collectors, Mr. E. Dwight Church, Mr. W. A. White, and Mr. Marsden J. Perry; Mr. George Parker Winship, Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Providence, Rhode Island; Mr. Strickland Gibson, of the Bodleian Library; M. Hugues Vaganay, Librarian of Les Facultés Catholiques of Lyons; Mrs. Strong, Librarian to the Duke of Devonshire; Mr. R. E. Graves, Librarian of the collection at Britwell; Mr.
<!-- [Page 15](arke:01KG6QANHFYCVRX5DJ9VFHBDAG) -->
8 PREFATORY NOTE
Strachan Holme, Librarian to the Earl of Ellesmere; Mr. F. J. Payne, whose full and competent notes on textual points have been very suggestive; and Mr. W. B. Owen, late Scholar of St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, who has given the editor valuable help in the collation of the texts and has rendered him much other service in preparing the work for the press.
October 1, 1905.
<!-- [Page 16](arke:01KG6QAN1G38BDKEY5D2MG5HC0) -->
- title
- Prefatory Note