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The Quest to Acquire the Oldest, Most Expensive Book on the Planet
- ummonk 8y agoOldest printed book (the first issue of the Gutenberg bible).
- siidooloo 8y agoHis first printed book was probably a latin grammar manual. The bible was his first important book.
- acqq 8y agoThat Gutenberg book she bought in 1950 was then sold 1989 for cca 5 million: https://librarianofbabel.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/estelle-doheny-collector-and-philanthropist/ https://librarianofbabel.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/estelle-do...
- m-i-l 8y agoBought in 1950 for "25,000 pounds sterling, the equivalent then of $70,093"[0] and sold in 1989 for "over $5 million"[1]. [0] https://lithub.com/the-quest-to-acquire-the-oldest-most-expensive-book-on-the-planet/ https://lithub.com/the-quest-to-acquire-the-oldest-most-expe... [1] https://librarianofbabel.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/estelle-doheny-collector-and-philanthropist/ https://librarianofbabel.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/estelle-do...
- keypusher 8y agoThat's a problematic title, considering this Gutenberg bible is neither the oldest nor the most expensive book on the planet. The Mormon Church spent $35 million on a printer's manuscript of The Book Of Mormon in 2017. [1] Bill Gates spent ~$30 million on Da Vinci's Codex Leicester in 1994, which would be around $54 million today. Even talking about printed works, The Bay Psalm Book was sold for $14.2 million in 2013. Depending on your definition of "book", the oldest known books are things like The Etruscan Gold Book, The Nag Hammadi codices, the St Cuthbert Gospel, etc. [1] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mormon-church-drops-35-million-on-printers-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon_us_59c42a12e4b06ddf45f6b427 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mormon-church-drops-35-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Leicester https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Leicester [3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-25115524 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-25115524
- Causality1 8y agoCame here to post exactly that and you beat me to it.
- erikig 8y agoThe Quest to Acquire the Oldest Printed Book that was the Most Expensive at the time based on the US/Sterling Pound Exchange Rate. It doesn't have the same ring to it...
- ada1981 8y agoNo photos?!
- erikig 8y agoThis is lithub buddy - the photos are in your mind... ;)
- johnnycab 8y agoThe article refers to the oldest printed book, which is expensive by the virtue of being in the hands of a private collector(s). The Diamond Sūtra pre-dates the Gutenberg Bible by some margin, is in The British Library collection[1]. [0] https://wiganlanebooks.co.uk/blog/interesting/10-of-the-oldest-known-surviving-books-in-the-world/ https://wiganlanebooks.co.uk/blog/interesting/10-of-the-olde... [1] https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-diamond-sutra https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-diamond-sutra
- drewmassey 8y agoI’ve handled one of the bay psalm books. It’s very magical even if the object itself is quite humble. If you want to get laughed out of Houghton library ask the staff to page the Gutenberg for you, as one of my friends did in their first year of grad school