Mr William Shakespeares comedies, histories, and tragedies. Published according to the true original copies, the second impression, London, Tho. Cotes for Robert Allot, 1632, Rare Books Collection

The First Folio of Shakespeare's plays was published in 1623, seven years after his death. It was compiled, from unauthorised versions, by two actors of the King's Company of Players, John Heminge and Henry Condell. It remains the only source for many of Shakespeare's plays. This second folio includes as a frontispiece the well-known portrait of Shakespeare, engraved by artist Martin Droeshout.

Aubrey Beardsley, The yellow book, vol 1, London, Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1894, Rare Books Collection, State Library Victoria

Published quarterly between 1894 and 1897, The yellow book was one of Britain's leading literary journals. It was associated with the Aesthetic and Decadent art movements, not least due to the influence of its first art editor, Aubrey Beardsley. Beardsley's controversial erotic illustrations to Oscar Wilde's play Salome (1894) – and indeed his association with Wilde, who was jailed for homosexual activity in 1895 – led to his dismissal from The yellow book after just six issues.

John Milton, Paradise lost, a poem in twelve books, London, Richard Bently and Jacob Tonson, 1688, John Emmerson Collection, State Library Victoria

Milton's Paradise lost first appeared in at least six variant issues between 1667 and 1669, with the only differences occurring on the title page. The 11,000-line poem comprised ten books in its original form, but by the second edition, of 1674, he had revised and restructured the poem into 12 books. The 1688 edition shown here was the first to be illustrated, and includes dramatic full-page engravings introducing each book.