Rare first edition of Shakespeare's plays found

Baku. 7 April. REPORT.AZ/ Rare first edition of Shakespeare's plays has been found in Scotland.

Report informs citing the foreign media, it is one of the rarest and most valuable books in the world, viewed by collectors as being akin to the Holy Grail.

And now the number of Shakespeare First Folios known to exist has risen by one, after a copy was found languishing on the bookshelves of Mount Stuart House on Bute.

The First Folios are the original collection of 36 of the bard's plays, published in 1623 shortly after his death by two of his contemporaries.

Only 750 were ever produced, and just 233 were known to have survived before the latest version was unearthed in Scotland.

Among their pages are the original texts for plays such as McBeth, Julius Caesar, The Tempest and Twelfth Night and others, and it is only because the Folio was published that they have come to audiences down through the ages.

Only one other copy is believed to reside in Scotland among the collection at Glasgow University, and last one to be sold at auction fetched a price of £2.5 million.

It is believed that the volumes were the working copy of Isaac Reed, a well-connected literary editor working in London in the 1700s, which became part of the Collection at Mount Stuart House in the 19th century.

The First Folios are the original collection of 36 of the bard's plays, published in 1623 shortly after his death by two of his contemporaries