Read Shakespeare in the original!

This from a press release from the communication department at the Bodleian Library, Oxford:

Oxford, 16 November 2009 – The highly-anticipated Shakespeare Quartos Archive has been officially launched today with a complete digital collection of rare early editions of Hamlet. For the first time, all 32 existing quarto copies of the play held by participating UK and US institutions are freely available online in one place (www.quartos.org). This initiative is jointly led by the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford and the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC, through a joint transatlantic grant from Jisc in the UK and the National Endowment for the Humanities in the US.


To read the rest of the press release, and a bit of informed commentary from The Hamlet Weblog, check here.

I haven't had a chance to check this out yet, but -- as a person who spent a couple of semesters buried in the deepest recesses of The Riverside Shakespeare -- I find this concept fascinating. What a great use of 21st century technology in the service of the Bard!