This room room houses twenty rare historical quartos, dating from Shakespeare's life and the years just following. Quartos were smaller books than folios - they were called quartos because the paper was folded into quarters before binding - whereas a folio was made of unfolded pages, and thus four times the size, and much more expensive!

Feel free to browse through the titles here, but be careful of these priceless treasures! Rare books may not be taken from this room! To look more closely at one you will need to "request" it from the rare books room librarian. First look up the title's call number that you would like to see in the card catalog. Then type in "request" in your dialogue box and answer the rare book room librarian's questions. She will bring the quarto from the back room for you.