In a monumental literary find, a copy of William Shakespeare’s original First Folio, one of the world’s most sought-after books containing 36 of the Bard’s plays published seven years after his death, has been discovered at a stately home on a remote Scottish island.
The goatskin-bound book, which was published in 1623, was found at Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute and will now go on public display at the stately home for the first time.
Academics who authenticated the book called it a rare and significant find.
“Like hell they have,” was professor of Shakespeare studies at Oxford University Emma Smith’s first reaction on being told about the discovery.
“We’ve found a First Folio that we didn’t know existed,” Ms Smith told the BBC after inspected the three-volume book, adding that it was authentic.
The discovery comes ahead of the 400th death anniversary of the playwright on April 23.
Adam Ellis-Jones, director of the Mount Stuart House Trust, said the identification of the original First Folio was “genuinely astonishing”.
About 230 copies of the First Folio are known to exist. A copy owned by Oxford University sold for 3.5 million pounds in 2003.
