19 Dec 2023

The 10 Most Expensive Books in The World That Every Bibliophile Would Like to Have

Our book collection is a precious asset for those of us who love books. Probably as a whole they do not have much economic value, unless we have an edition signed by the author or considered rare, but it is usually more the sentimental value that weighs on us< a i=4>: that book we read during those wonderful vacations; the other one that made us stay awake several nights until finishing it, trapped in his story. Books thus become more than just transmitters of a message or an idea, they are evocators of memories, moments and experiences lived while reading them....>

Codex Leicester
The problem with human beings is that sometimes they want what they cannot have and of course, some people have no qualms about appropriating what does not belong to them . In the world of books it also happens and there are not a few cases. The curious thing is that many of them are characters who declare themselves bibliophiles, lovers of books (and other people's property), or even librarians who, taking advantage of their position, dedicated themselves to stealing from the collections they were supposed to protect.

One of the most notorious cases of book thefts occurred relatively a few years ago in Santiago of Compostela: the grotesque theft of the Codex Calixtinus. Revenge, bad practices and the lack of security measures were the causes of this theft that ended happily with the recovery of the Codex.

In 2023, in the United Kingdom, a series of robberies occurred, in the most typical Hollywood style passing through motion sensors and other anti-theft measures. The objective was a second edition dated 1566 of Copernicus's work De revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, a true gem with an approximate price of 250,000 euros. There were also works by Galileo Galilei and a couple of very rare editions of Dante's work, The Divine Comedy, among other wonders. In total, more than one hundred and fifty books were stolen, reaching a total of more than two million euros.

And there are also reverse cases, that is, projects that seek to return stolen books to their owners or their descendants. This is the case of Sebastian Finsterwalder, a worker at the Berlin Central and Regional Library, who is trying to return hundreds of thousands of books that were once stolen by the Nazis or left in public hands due to the plundering of the Third Reich. His arduous task involves investigating and analyzing each book, in order to find some detail, no matter how minimal, that allows him to trace the thread back to the legitimate owners.

The point is that there are books extraordinary works that, for one reason or another, become authentic works of art, precious unique objects that reach astronomical prices when They are put up for sale and auctioned, attracting all the attention. Today we will comment the ten most expensive books, to date, of the story.

The most expensive books in the world (plus one of the most enigmatic books in the world
By the way, and before starting the list, we want to point out that we are not going to include in our list what is supposed to be the most expensive book in the world: a>, since the appraiser being the author himself does not seem very objective...Die Aufgabe

1. The Gutenberg Bible (more or less 65 million euros)
The Gutenberg Bible is the most expensive book in the world... and each of the 1,300 pages it has can be sold for a whopping figure of 50,000 euros. Note that it was one of the first Bibles printed by Gutenberg and was colored by hand.

2. Codex Leicester (almost 26 million euros)
We therefore begin our ranking with the Codex Leicester. Bill Gates paid 25,900,000 euros for this manuscript of the great Leonardo da Vinci where he expounded some of his scientific theories; It was written between 1506 and 1508 and is 72 pages long. In 1994 it was auctioned by Christie's.

3. Magna Carta Libertatum (15 million euros)
The one known as Magna Letter was a milestone in the history of human rights. The first, sealed on June 15 by John I of England, served to make peace between the English monarch and a group of rebellious barons, promising to protect ecclesiastical rights, the barons faced with illegal imprisonment, the access to immediate justice and limitations on feudal rates to Crown, among other rights. A copy of 1297 has belonged since 2023 to businessman David Rubenstein who paid fifteen million euros for it.

4. Rothschild prayer book (11 million euros)
Christie's in New York was also responsible for putting up for auction the devotional book that belonged to the Rothschild family and was acquired by the Australian Kerry Stokes. The copy is actually a book of hours, a jewel among the manuscripts that reflects the virtuosity and beauty that was achieved at the time in illustration and miniatures. As a curiosity, the book can be seen in the National Library of Australia.

5. Gospel of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (11 million)
This gospel, which fits in one hand, is the oldest European book preserved in good condition. It was written around the year 715 and since 2023 it belongs to the British Library. It receives its name from the tomb of the saint where it was found.

6. Bay Psalm Book (11 million)
With the original title of The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Meter and published in 1640, it is the first book published in the USA, just a few years after the arrival of the first pilgrims. Our friend David Rubenstein also got it in 2023 at a Sotheby's auction.

Bay Psalm Book
7. Gospels of Henry the Lion (9 million)
These gospels written by order of Henry the Lion, Duke of Babiera and Saxony, written and illustrated in the Helmarshausen monastery in 1188, were bought in 1983 for a value of nearly nine million euros by a group of German institutions and are exhibited once a year for the enjoyment of citizens.

8. Birds of America (over 8 million)
John James Audoubon, of Haitian origin, was the ornithologist who authored this wonderful guide with 435 Life-size illustrations of native American birds.

9. The Canterbury Tales (7.5 million euros)
There are only twelve copies of the original draft of The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer. bought by London book dealers in 1998 for a price of seven and a half million euros in 1478, one of them was

10. First Folio of William Shakespeare (4 million)
This is how the first compilation of Shakespeare's works is commonly known, whose original title was Mr William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. It is believed that up to 750 copies may exist.

We want to close this list of exceptional books with one that has been a great mystery for a long time and which is now going to begin to /span>. To this day it is unknown what the meaning of its text is, in what language or even what its wonderful illustrations represent. Quite an enigma that has led some to think that it is an elaborate hoax.Siloé. The parchment on which the enigmatic content is written is dated by carbon 14 between 1404 and 1438; It is named after the specialist who acquired it in 1912, Wilfrid M. Voynich, and currently belongs to the rare book collection of Yale University which, with a view to its preservation and given the enormous interest it arouses among researchers, decided its digitization a few years ago. This work was carried out by the Spanish company Voynich Manuscript; we are referring to the decrypt