7 Durham University Library

Books  Durham University's First Folio is reputed to have almost the longest single ownership of all extant volumes. It was originally owned by the churchman John Cosin, who is thought to have bought it shortly after its publication around 1630. Exiled to France in 1644 for his loyalty to the monarchy, notably Charles I, Cosin's Folio was housed with his extensive book collection at Peterhouse, Cambridge. After the monarchy was restored in 1660, Cosin was made Bishop of Durham and built one of the country's earliest public libraries on the green near Durham Cathedral. In 1672, he bequeathed his collection, including the Folio, to the clergy of the diocese. It remained in the library—now called Cosin's Library—for centuries, until the collection was passed to Durham University in 1963.

Then, in 1998, the Folio was famously stolen. In 2010, the BBC made Stealing Shakespeare, a documentary about the affair narrated by David Tennant. In summary, an eccentric book dealer named Raymond Scott brought a First Folio to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., for authentication, claiming he had acquired it in Cuba during a holiday with his girlfriend. Experts quickly identified it as the Durham Folio. When Scott returned to the UK, he was arrested and convicted of handling stolen goods, although authorities were unable to prove he was the original burglar. Scott unalived himself in prison two years later, maintaining his innocence to the end. However, an interview with a local newspaper, later quoted by The Guardian, suggested there was more to the story.

Once its identity was confirmed in court with a witness statement from Anthony James West—author of the most current census of Folios at the time—it was returned to the university. Staff then began the process of stabilising it. As you can see from the above image, the goatskin binding, added in 1845 by Charles C Tuckett & Son, was removed while the book was missing, as were the title pages and the final leaves of Cymbeline, presumably in an attempt to hide its identity. To date, the University has decided not to rebind the book.   One of the few benefits of the vandalism is that it has offered unprecedented access to the binding and the pages themselves, allowing for observations that couldn't be made with an intact copy (you don't teardown a book worth millions of pounds just to see what's underneath).

The Folio is currently on display at an exhibition in Cosin's Library that runs until the end of October. It's housed in a glass cabinet, allowing for a 360-degree view of the book, including its spine and back. Surrounding it are double-sided glass cases displaying pages that are still loose: the list of principal actors, the contents page, John Heminges and Henry Condell's introduction ("To the great Variety of Readers"), and odd pages from Cymbeline. Usually on these visits, the most I can see is whichever pages are on display and perhaps the binding, so this is a welcome change, even if the circumstances that led to it are grim. The university has also released a video offering an excellent view of the gorgeous Cosin's Library:

That video was almost the closest I was going to get to seeing the Folio. After hearing about the display, I booked an overnight trip to Durham from Sunday to Monday, planning to visit the cathedral on my arrival day (it had its own exhibition on the Magna Carta)(she did not die in vain) and see the Folio the next morning.  Durham Cathedral is as gorgeous as its reputation suggests, and I especially recommend its museum. Apparently, it doesn't have the same footfall as the rest of the building, but it houses numerous important relics. These include the extraordinary wooden coffin of St Cuthbert; the saint himself, along with the Venerable Bede, is buried elsewhere in the cathedral in his own tomb. As a bonus, you can also see the spots where the Asgard scenes were filmed for Avengers: Endgame.

After finishing at the Cathedral on my first day, I realised the First Folio exhibition was nearby, so I decided to pop in to check the opening hours for Monday and see if I needed to book a space. The very helpful person at reception informed me that the library, and therefore the exhibition, were closed on Mondays, but that I had arrived just in time for the final entry of the day.  In other words, if I hadn't happened to drop in, I would have travelled all the way to Durham for no reason—much like a recent, trip to London with its lack of various fruits. Fortunately, just this once, Rose, I was in the right place at the right time and was able to see the Durham University First Folio. It's one of the documents listed in my guide on this journey, The Shakespeare First Folios: A Descriptive Catalogue, and one that I thought was going to be among the most difficult to see.