A copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio has sold in New York for $2.5m (32m).

It contains 36 manuscripts and was published in 1623, seven years after the Stratford-upon-Avon author passed away. They contain 18 plays, like Macbeth and The Tempest, that would have been lost otherwise.

The First Folio was initially printed in about 750 copies, but only 232 have survived, according to auctioneers Sotheby’s, and only a few of those are in private hands.

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It has been cited as being the most significant piece of English literature, alongside the King James Version of the Bible.

William Shakespeare’s First Book Sold For $2.5M In New York

It includes an engraved portrait of the author and poetical tributes by Ben Johnson and others.

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The copy auctioned on Thursday in New York is estimated to be one of just 20 remaining in private ownership with the rest currently displayed in museums and libraries across the world.

Shakespeare’s performing mates in the King’s Men, John Heminges and Henry Condell, assembled and edited the fragments to preserve half of the Bard’s plays.

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Shakespeare wrote 39 plays, 18 of which are well known because they are included in the folio, according to Sotheby’s, including Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, The Taming of the Shrew, and All’s Well that Ends Well.