Shakespeare's real portrait found in plant book

An image claimed to be the only contemporary portrait of William Shakespeare has been discovered in a 16th century book about plants.

In what has been hailed as "the literary discovery of the century", the drawing was identified by UK botanist and historian Mark Griffiths and revealed in this week's issue of 'Country Life' magazine.

Griffiths cracked an "ingenious cipher" to identify the world's best-known playwright in an engraving in the 16th-century work. "This is what Shakespeare looked like, drawn from life and in the prime of life," he said.

The discovery depicts Shakespeare aged 33, while all the other well-known images we have of Shakespeare were produced after his death.

'Country Life's' editor, Mark Hedges, said: "This is the only verifiable portrait of Shakespeare in his lifetime. Two-thirds of the world study Shakespeare, everyone knows Shakespeare, but nobody knows what he looks like. This is the most extraordinary discovery of the century."

Griffiths made his discovery when he was researching the biography of pioneering botanist John Gerard (1545-1612), author of The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes.

The 1,484 page book, published in 1598, is described as the largest single-volume work on plants that has been published in English. The title page is illustrated with an engraving by William Rogers depicting four figures, which were thought to have been imaginary.

However, as 'Country Life' reports, Griffiths decoded decorative devices around the figures – such as heraldic motifs and emblematic flowers – to reveal their "true identities".

One of them holds a fritillary and an ear of sweetcorn – plants which Griffiths says point to Shakespeare's poem Venus and Adonis and his play Titus Andronicus.

"The Fourth Man is not cartoonish or stylised. It may be monochrome, in fancy dress, and just 3.5 inches tall, but this is something that has been sought for centuries," Griffiths wrote.

"By the time that portraits of Shakespeare were at a premium, the significance of the Rogers engraving had faded from memory. Its camouflaged figures, coded plants and ciphers proved too clever for its own good. The title page, one of the richest and most important artworks of the English Renaissance, came to be seen merely as a bibliophile's rarity and a fine, if stereotypical specimen of Elizabethan decoration. Nobody dreamed of finding Shakespeare in it," he said.