# Most valuable book **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2003, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-valuable-book/149703 "2003-01-20T00:04:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![insider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@insider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insider)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-valuable-book/149703/1 "2003-01-20T00:04:57Z")
What is the most valuable book? Valuable meaning worth the most amount of money. Also, is there actually a book that is priceless? ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-valuable-book/149703/2 "2003-01-20T00:08:39Z")
One half of the original Gutenberg Bible in German sold last year for $5,400,000.00. I think that’s a world record. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-valuable-book/149703/3 "2003-01-20T00:14:21Z")
What is worth the most money is cyclical, but to American book collectors the Holy Grail is a first edition copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s TAMERLANE AND OTHER POEMS. He published it anonymously at his own expense in 1827, it was an unqualified flop, and it’s not certain how many copies were printed but only three are known to exist (that was as of 1990; there may be more now). A copy in excellent condition would easily sell in the seven figures. When you get into incanabula (pre-Gutenberg books), the price depends on how rare the text, condition, artwork, etc… For centuries, European antique dealers have made small fortunes by disassembling not particularly significant illuminated books and selling them by the page. They make great and relatively inexpensive decorations, so they sell fast; unfortunately, a few of the more historically significant manuscripts have been gutted in this way also. Priceless: I’d reserve this for the Dead Sea scrolls (which originally sold for a few dollars to a bedouin and now reside in their own pottery shaped museum). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-valuable-book/149703/4 "2003-01-20T00:17:48Z")
I forgot- Bill Gates paid $30.8 million during the 1990s for the da Vinci CODEX, an original manuscript of Leonardo’s text and drawings. The MS screensaver called “da Vinci” is taken from this manuscript. Telling and ironic, isn’t it, that MS used to stand for manuscript but is now more likely to stand for Microsoft? (One of Poe’s short stories, MS in a Bottle, unites this post to the above one.) ---
**Author:** ![Jabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-valuable-book/149703/5 "2003-01-20T00:19:50Z")
In 1998, a first edition of Chaucer’s _Canterbury Tales_ sold for £4.6 million ( $7.53 million). ---
**Author:** ![Popup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@Popup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Popup)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-valuable-book/149703/6 "2003-01-20T12:14:10Z")
Nice post **Sampiro** , but I fel that I have to pick this nit: > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sampiro \* > **When you get into incanabula (pre-Gutenberg books)** inc **u** nabulum (pl incunubula) normally means a printed book from the 15th century. ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-valuable-book/149703/7 "2003-01-20T14:11:25Z")
Also appearing under the ‘Priceless’ heading: The Book of Kells- 9th century transcription of the gospels onto vellum, lavishly and eccentrically illustrated and annotated by its scribes, now on display at Trinity College Dublin.