5 Of The World’s Most Expensive Books
Book lovers, where you at? Come out and take a look at these rare and oldest prints you could lay your eyes on. Not to mention the priciest and least likely we could smell or touch *collective sound of hearts breaking*.
5. The Gutenberg Bible
It was printed by Johann Gutenberg in Mainz, hence the name, c.1455. It was the first book printed from movable types in the western world.
This book has forty-eight copies that survived but only 31 of these are perfect. A single leaf sells for £50,000; a complete version would be worth tens of millions of pounds.
4. Don Quixote
Don Quixote quickly gained recognition as one of those universal works which are read by all ages at all times, and Don Quixote and Sancho Panza have become legendary figures Since then. There is only one complete copy of this book left and this last copy sold for $1.5M at an auction in 1989.
3. Geographia Cosmographia
This edition of the Geographia Cosmographia is groundbreaking because it paved way for the measurement of the world. It served as a model for all future cartographers despite it’s inaccuracy due to errors in his measurements.
Ptolemy stated that the earth is spherical and demonstrated the use of a coordinate system we still use up to this day based on that shape.
A copy sold for over £2M in 2006.
2. The Codex Leicester
This book is one from The Codex Leicester collection of scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The name codex came from Thomas Coke, who later created Earl of Leicester, who purchased it in 1719.
Leonardo had 30 scientific journals, but the Codex may be the most famous of all. Bill Gates bought it in 1994 in New York for more than $30m!
1. Stonyhurst Gospel
The Stonyhurst Gospel, also known as the St Cuthbert Gospel, or the St Cuthbert Gospel of St John, is a 7th-century pocket gospel book which is written in Latin.
The British Library launched a fundraising campaign in July 2011 to buy the book for £9m. It took nine months for the purchase to be completed.
