Owner and Cost of the rarest book
Who owns the rarest book in the world and how much is it?
As a rare book collector, you would be interested in getting to know about people who own the rarest books available for purchase out there in the world. Then you can get a better understanding about your hobby and learn more details on how people engage with it. Here is a list of some of the rarest books available for purchase out there in the world. However, details related to the ownership of most of these books are not available out there as of now.
The First Book of Urizen by William Blake
The First Book of Urizen was published in the year 1794. This is one of the most prominent books that you can see within the prophetic works that you can find in the Blake’s Series. However, only around 8 copies of this book are surviving as of now. One such copy was sold at a price of $2.5 million at the Sotheby’s New York back in the year 1999. A private rare book collector purchased the book. However, his details are not available to the public.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling is well-known for the Harry Potter books. However, she didn’t start writing with Harry Potter books. She wrote many other books before that. The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a perfect example for one such book. This is one of the sought-after books that we can see out there as of now. J.K. Rowling only created seven copies of this book. All those seven copies were written on her own. She even drew the illustrations of those books. Out of those seven copies, she gave out six copies to the editors and friends that she knew.
One of the seven copies were put on auction for selling back in the year 2007. That copy of the book was sold at a price of over $3.98 million. Along with that, it was able to become the most expensive modern manuscript book to be sold out there in the world through an auction. Money that was earned out of the sale of this book was donated to a charity project named The Children’s Voice.
Geographia Cosmographia by Claudius Ptolemy
Geographia Cosmographia is not actually a book. You can call this as the very first atlas to be printed in the world. On the other hand, you can think about calling it as the very first book in the world to come along with engraved illustrations as well. This was created by Ptolemy back in the year 1477. It was sold at a price of over 2 million GBP during an auction held in London back in the year 2006. The price of this book is equivalent to more than $4 million as of now.
The Gutenberg Bible
Shapero.com says the Gutenberg Bible is another rare and precious book that you can find out there in the world as of now. This copy of the Bible was sold at a price of $4,9 million back in the year 1987. It is believed that around 48 books of this are available for purchase as of now. This is the very first portable book of the Bible published as well. Hence, all the rare book collectors out there in the world should pay special attention towards collecting this book and having it under their possession. However, only millionaires will be able to do that.
First Folio by William Shakespeare
The First Folio by William Shakespeare is another sought after rare book that you can find out there in the world as of now. It is the dream of all the rare book collectors out there in the world to get hold of this rare book into the collection. This is one of the most valued rare books available for buying as of now as well.
William Shakespeare published around 750 copies of the First Folio. However, only around 228 of those copies are available as of now. Back in the year 2001, Paul Allen, who is the co-founder of Microsoft went ahead and purchased one out of those copies for a price of over $6 million.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
First edition of The Canterbury Tales was published back in the 15th Century. These books are highly in demand as of now. For example, during an auction that was held in London during the year 1998, one of these books were sold at a price of over 4.6 million GBP. The price is around 7.5 million as of now. The current owner of this book is not known because the auction for selling this book was something that was held privately.
Birds of America by James Audubon
James Audubon was a popular naturalist to live in the United States. He went ahead and published a book titled Birds of America, which contained information with related to all the birds that you can find in the United States as of now. This book was sold at a high price tag. Around 119 copies of this book are available for sale as of now. During an auction held in the United States during the year 2000, one copy out of that was sold at a price of $8 million. After ten years, another edition was sold at a price of $11.5 million. There is a copy of this book available for auction as of now. If you can spend millions of dollars, you will be able to go ahead and purchase this book.
Final words
Now you have a clear picture about some of the rarest books available for the purchase of people out there in the world. As a rare book collector, it is worthy to pay your attention to these books. Then you can proceed with investing your money accordingly, so that you can go for the best books out of them.