
The Quest to Acquire the Oldest, Most Expensive Book on the Planet - longdefeat
https://lithub.com/the-quest-to-acquire-the-oldest-most-expensive-book-on-the-planet/
======
keypusher
That'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-...](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mormon-church-
drops-35-million-on-printers-manuscript-of-the-book-of-
mormon_us_59c42a12e4b06ddf45f6b427)

[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)

~~~
erikig
_The 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...

------
ummonk
Oldest printed book (the first issue of the Gutenberg bible).

~~~
siidooloo
His first printed book was probably a latin grammar manual. The bible was his
first important book.

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johnnycab
The 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-
olde...](https://wiganlanebooks.co.uk/blog/interesting/10-of-the-oldest-known-
surviving-books-in-the-world/)

[1] [https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-diamond-
sutra](https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-diamond-sutra)

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acqq
That Gutenberg book she bought in 1950 was then sold 1989 for cca 5 million:

[https://librarianofbabel.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/estelle-
do...](https://librarianofbabel.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/estelle-doheny-
collector-and-philanthropist/)

~~~
m-i-l
Bought 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-
expe...](https://lithub.com/the-quest-to-acquire-the-oldest-most-expensive-
book-on-the-planet/)

[1] [https://librarianofbabel.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/estelle-
do...](https://librarianofbabel.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/estelle-doheny-
collector-and-philanthropist/)

------
drewmassey
I’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

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ada1981
No photos?!

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erikig
This is lithub buddy - the photos are in your mind...

;)

