The essays collected in the present volume are the result of a long-term project. An international group of scholars addressed questions connected with the relation of the changing concepts of history and the status of history in Shakespearean plays in reading and in actual representation on the stage. Especially interesting aspects of the research deal with the transposition of the time and place of Shakespeare's plays to the time and place of their reception within the context of historical awareness; equally fascinating are the studies which up the perspectives of the medieval and Renaissance contexts. Memory and how in operates (or how we operate it) turns out to be an indispensable complement to the research on the literary and dramatic representation of history. The variety of problems and aspects tackled here opens up interesting insights into the diversity of experience of and reflection on history and representation of history in Shakespeare's plays.