![]() ![]() Dating to the 7th century, this small text originally accompanied St. Cuthbert Gospel, which is certainly one of the oldest books on our list. Sold for: £9,000,000 ($14,300,000) at Sotheby’s (April 2012)Īnother of the most expensive antique books sold at auction is the St. This particular edition of the Magna Carta, remarkably well-preserved and bearing the seal of the King of England, is thus a wonderful piece of history. While the initial impact of the document was mixed, the Magna Carta would be a document to which historians and politicians would point centuries later as one of the foundational pillars of the legal system as we know it today. Originally drafted in the 13th century, the Magna Carta was a royal charter developed by the Archbishop of Canterbury primarily to regulate the actions of the English King and to establish a sense of common law among his people. While not exactly a book, this antique manuscript is assuredly one of the most expensive ever sold. Sold for: $21.321 million at Sotheby’s (December 2007) Hammer left his collection to the eponymous Hammer Museum of the University of California that later put the book up for auction in 1994. Why not name it the Codex Leonardo? This volume, following tradition, took its name from the last person who owned it – the Earl of Leicester – although it had been purchased by Armand Hammer in 1980 (technically updating the name to the Codex Hammer). With more than 300 illustrations and diary-like entries (written backward, of course, as was characteristic for Leonardo) that impart the innovative Renaissance figure’s ruminations on science, the book is one of only about 20 such compendiums produced by the prodigious artist. ![]() Perhaps the “author” of the text will help to explain its high price: its pages were crafted by none other than Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci between stays in both Milan and Florence. The next highest on the list of most expensive antique books ever sold is the Codex Leicester, a 72-page text purchased by technology tycoon Bill Gates in November 1994. Sold for: $30.8 million at Christie’s (November 1994) The Book of Mormon First Edition: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon, realized $77,500 via Swann Auction Galleries, NY, NY (April 12, 2018) Such formative texts can achieve impressive auction prices even when they are not so unique: a 2018 auction of a first edition publication of the Book of Mormon sold for $80,000. It stayed within the church’s possession until its sale in 19 purchase, then, marks the manuscript’s fitting return to the LDS archives. Grandin, for typesetting before the hand-crafted manuscript was given to a member of the growing Mormon church for safekeeping. This draft then made its way to the local printer, E.B. Considered one of the central texts of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), the Book of Mormon was purportedly derived from Smith’s translation of text found inscribed on golden tablets discovered near his Palmyra, New York, home in the 1820s. Holding the record as the most expensive antique book ever sold is the original printer’s draft of the Book of Mormon, hand-written following the dictation of Mormonism’s founder Joseph Smith. Sold for: $35 million in a private sale (September 2017) From priceless manuscripts to the most expensive first editions of iconic texts, we’ll look at the reasons why these books are so compelling to collectors. In this article, we explore some of these top-selling titles that broke records and astonished auction goers with their striking sales prices. Add in a dash of history and a pinch of rarity, and you are well on your way to a recipe for some of the most coveted books of all time. ![]() We’ve probably all felt the pull of a good book: from the brilliance of the prose to the beauty of its illustrations, any artfully bound text can hold a captivating quality.
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