November 8, 1623

First Folio

Shakespeare's First Folio is entered in the Stationers' Register

The legal entry for a thirty-six-play book names only sixteen plays — the ones whose rights had not already been claimed by somebody else.

An entry in Liber D

On 8 November 1623 Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard entered Mr. William Shakespeers Comedyes Histories, and Tragedyes in the Stationers' Company's Liber D, securing the company's record of their right to the plays not already entered to other stationers.

The entry registered only those sixteen. It did not say the volume contained sixteen plays — the completed book held thirty-six, of which eighteen appeared in print for the first time.

Registration is not publication

The exact day copies first went on sale is unknown. The earliest attested retail transaction is Edward Dering's purchase on 5 December 1623 — and he did not buy one copy, he bought two.

So 8 November is demonstrably the registration date, but it is not a proven publication or first-sale date. The register entry itself is securely dated; whether copies were published or sold that day is not established.

Old Style, and a printer who did not live to finish

Both dates are English Old Style. England still used the Julian calendar in 1623, ten days behind the Gregorian calendar then used across much of continental Europe, so 8 November corresponds to 18 November Gregorian.

William Jaggard printed the volume in his London shop but died before the project was completed; Isaac Jaggard then took over the family shop. John Heminge and Henry Condell of the King's Men gathered the plays and signed the prefatory material. An estimated 750 copies were printed and 235 are known to survive, 82 of them at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources 2 audit passes, 1 issue open Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree about when this happened.

What the sources leave uncertain

November 8 is demonstrably the registration date, not a proven publication or on-sale date. The book was available by December 5, but no source consulted establishes its first day of sale.
Both dates are English Old Style dates. England still used the Julian calendar in 1623, ten days behind the Gregorian calendar then used in much of continental Europe; November 8 O.S. corresponds to November 18 Gregorian.
The confidence is “disputed” only for treating November 8 as the publication date. The register entry itself is securely dated.