'But we know that Mount Stuart acquired the Folio at some point in this period because it is mentioned in a catalogue of the Bute library in 1896. 'After that the trail of the Folio goes cold as there are no further public records of its existence and it was omitted from Sidney Lee's 1906 census of First Folios. 'A letter from Reed shows that he acquired the Folio in 1786, and records show that it was sold shortly after Reed’s death in 1807 to a ‘JW’ for £38. 'This First Folio belonged to Isaac Reed, a serious and well-connected literary editor who had an extensive library. 'It is an unusual Folio because it is bound in three volumes and has lots of spare blank pages which would have been used for illustrations. She added: 'This is an exciting discovery because we didn’t know it existed and it was owned by someone who edited Shakespeare in the 18th Century.' It was a really exciting moment, I find First Folios to be such charismatic books.' 'But when I went up to investigate, I could see from the watermarks and the idiosyncracies of the text that it was genuine. 'When the team at Mount Stuart first told me they thought they had a First Folio, I must admit I thought "yeah, sure, and so do I!",' said Professor Smith. Around 230 First Folios are known to survive and it is one of the most valuable books in the world. The First Folio is the name given to the collection of William Shakespeare’s 36 plays published in 1623. Professor Smith has identified the Folio as the working copy that formerly belonged to Isaac Reed, a well-connected literary editor working in London in the 18th century. It is the only Folio to be displayed this year that has not previously been seen by the public. The Folio can be viewed by the public at Mount Stuart in a special display which will run from today until 30 October. Today's announcement comes nearly 400 years after Shakespeare died, on April 23 1616.
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