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● Interview with Mark Griffiths (video)

● Many doubt the new claims (Smithsonian)

A historian claims he has discovered the only surviving image of William Shakespeare that was produced in his lifetime.

Mark Griffiths, who is also a botanist, found the image in a book published in 1598, The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes by John Gerard. The 1,484-page encyclopaedia of plants has four portraits on its title page, the fourth of which Griffiths believes is Shakespeare.

Griffiths said: “While working late on Midsummer’s Night 2010, I identified a man who is portrayed, unnamed, on the title page of Gerard’s Herball. At first, I found it hard to believe that anyone so famous, so universally sought, could have hidden in plain sight for so long.”