The academic community goes into paroxysms of joy as someone discovered copies of William Shakespeare’s First Folio 400 years after his death.

The playwright’s First Folio in the collection of a historic house on a Scottish island has been verified as genuine, bringing the number of known surviving First Folios to 234, according to a statement from the Mount Stuart mansion, in whose collection the book was found.

Alice Martin, the head of collections at the Mount Stuart House Trust said, ‘In terms of literary discoveries, they do not come much bigger than a new First Folio, and we are really excited that this has happened on Bute.’

Bute is an island off western Scotland, in the Firth of Clyde.

Emma Smith, a professor of Shakespeare studies at Oxford University confirmed the authenticity of the volumes, adding that she hoped that more exciting discoveries would be made in the collection.

‘The First Folios, the first printed collection of 36 of Shakespeare’s plays, were published in 1623, seven years after his death. Had it not been for the publication of these volumes, scholars say, more than half of Shakespeare’s plays would be unknown to the modern world, including works like Macbethand The Tempest.

‘The folio found on the Scottish island, whose discovery was announced Thursday, was passed from hand to hand. At one point, it was bought for as little as 38 British pounds. The three-volume folio was rebound in goatskin in 1932.

‘The 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death is April 23. The 452nd anniversary of his birth also occurs this month, although the exact date is unknown. If Shakespeare can observe the modern world from whatever perch he now occupies, he might be doing so with a smile and a sense of bemusement.’