(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licence)
April is a special month in the world of English Literature. It is the month of playwright William Shakespeare's birth to which the exact date is not known and death, on 23rd April.
Now, it is made extra special when a First Folio of Shakespeare's writings were authenticated as being genuine! This First Folio was confirmed to be authentic by Emma Smith, a professor of Shakespeare studies at Oxford University.
(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licence)
This folio was discovered in Bute, an island off western Scotland, in the Firth of Clyde. It was in a historic house on this Scottish island that this rare First Folio was uncovered.
What is a First Folio? It is a first printed collection of Shakespeare's plays. With this newly authenticated folio, the number of known surviving First Folios is now 234.
These First Folios are highly regarded. Most scholars agreed that without the publication of these First Folios, a lot of Shakespeare's works would have remained unknown! We certainly hope that more genuine folios can be found!
What an exciting piece of history for the world of English Literature!
