World’s Rare Books and Manuscripts
The rarest and most expensive books and manuscripts
The rare book collections comprise materials that reflect the history of printing, literature and book collecting. With particular strengths in the illuminated, early modern English and French literature first editions and history, which have an enhanced value because the demand for the book exceeds the supply, usually because of its edition age, condition, physical and aesthetic properties, association, or subject matter.
When we talk about rare books, we speak of books that have a limited supply. First editions tend to be considered “rare” as a generality because the first printing of a book represents only a small number of the total number of copies that are printed. Publishers, ever mindful of reducing their costs, will try to print the number of copies that they project to be likely to sell. The first printing for a first-time author might be fairly limited since publishers don’t necessarily expect an overwhelming demand.
In this case, “William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories & Tragedies” these are a collection (above) of plays by the most influential writer in the English language and the world’s most celebrated playwright. A literary treasure, the folio contains all but four of Shakespeare’s plays. 750 copies of the folio were published seven years after Shakespeare’s death in 1616, becoming the first authoritative collection of his life’s work, and only 228 intact copies have survived. Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, purchased a copy for $6.2 Million in 2001 at an auction in New York City.
“The Birds of America by Audubon”, comprising of 435 hand-colored, life-sized engravings of a wide variety of birds of the United States, is a book by the distinguished naturalist and painter John James Audubon. Originally published as a series between the years 1827 and 1838, it is a product of a gifted naturalist’s determination to paint, in fabulous detail, every species of bird living in North America. This is a highly prized and sought after book, with one four-volume set raking in $11.5 Million in 2010 and another fetching $8.8 million at an auction in 2000. Altogether, copies of “Birds of America” have sold for more than $50 million.
“The Rothschild Prayer Book” is a 16th Century Flemish collection of Christian texts, psalms, and illustrations originally owned by the wealthy Austrian banker Anselm Salomon von Rothschild and his descendants. Compiled by numerous acclaimed and distinguished artists of the period, this is a Renaissance-era prayer book of exquisite quality. The book has had quite an intriguing past as well; confiscated by the Nazis in 1938, Hitler gave it to the National Library in Vienna, and decades later, in 1999, the Austrian government returned the manuscript to its rightful owners, the Rothschilds. The book was most recently purchased in 2014 for $13.6 million.
The Codex of Leicester, written in 1510, is the personal scientific journal of the Italian polymath, Leonardo Da Vinci. With Da Vinci’s wide interests in drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, and several others, Da Vinci is renowned as the most diversely talented and gifted mind to have ever lived. The 72-page manuscript comprises of his musings, mental notes, theories, ideas, and observations, and with no other copies in existence, this journal is the most sought after and rarest manuscripts in the world today. It has been owned by Giuseppe Ghezzi, Earl of Leicester, Armand Hammer and was purchased by Bill Gates in 1994 for $30 million.
The handwritten Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K.Rowling is a modern book consisting of five diverse, uniquely enchanting fairy tales, full of charm, humor, and thrill, given by Albus Dumbledore to Hermione as a farewell present in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This fictional book gained such popularity among the Harry Potter fandom that Rowling wrote and illustrated 7 copies in her own handwriting, embellished them with silver and moonstones and encased them in morocco leather. Rowling gifted 6 copies to important people in her life, close friends and editors who were instrumental in helping her create the Harry Potter series, selling the final copy at an auction for $3.97 million.
A collection of 24 stories interlinked by common themes, written between 1387 and 1400, there are only a dozen original copies of the first edition of ‘The Canterbury Tales’ by fourteenth-century poet Geoffrey Chaucer are scattered around the world today. The book is told in the form of a story-telling contest amongst a crew of pilgrims as they travel from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket. Chaucer used irony and a wide range of people from all classes to paint an unflattering picture of the customs and practices of English society at the time. A first edition of the book, previously owned by Earl Fitzwilliam — who originally bought it for just £6 — was sold in auction in 1998 for a hefty sum of $7.5 million to British billionaire Sir Paul Getty.
In 1924, French publishers Three Mountains Press released “In Our Time’’, a collection of short stories by Ernest Hemingway. Only 300 copies were ever printed during its initial run. However, due to a printing mistake, only 170 of those copies were released and sold. The frontis is a woodcut portrait of Hemingway, which bled into the next page during printing. The remaining 130 copies were given away to friends and family and as review gift copies. Hemingway famously wrote, “In order to write about life you must first live it.” Due to its very limited print, In Our Time is considered one of the most rare books for collectors. In April 2004, a first edition sold at auction for a whopping $321,600 at Sotheby’s New York.
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