Talk:List of sources for Shakespeare's plays
Scholarly Sources
This list is largely compiled from titles and publication dates mentioned in Geoffrey Bullough's Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975). Bullough's "probable" and "possible" categories have been conflated. In a few cases, where it was unclear which edition Bullough referred to, the closest contemporary edition to the play in question was chose. This typically applies to works in languages other than English which Bullough supplies in translation. In a few cases, where either the Folger or the British Library held additional, fully-digitized works not available to Bullough, such as the contemporary manuscript of Philip Sidney's Arcadia, those were included. Titles were also added if they were identified in Folger records as being likely sources of Shakespeare's plays, even if not mentioned by Bullough. Further additions are welcome, and this list makes no claims about the current academic consensus on Bullough or any other source's validity.
Libraries
Titles were searched in:
- Folger Shakespeare Library
- British Library
- Huntington Library
- Harry Ransom Center
- Houghton Library
- Boston Public library
Additional contributors should feel free to add further holdings.
Other libraries are included where A) they are the only holding library for an edition (as is often the case for the Bodleian), or B) they have digitized a work and made it available through open-source platforms like the HathiTrust or Internet Archive. When multiple copies are present, they are listed by number if the library uses one catalogue record for many items, and by call number as individual links if the library creates multiple catalogue records for multiple items of the same edition. These libraries were selected as having a large number of the target publications and/or a large number of digitized copies of a selection of the target publications.