First printed book in English sold for over £1m

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-28344300

by acsillag • 12 years ago

24 7 12 years ago

ChuckMcM• 12 years ago

Wow, I guess unlike 'insuring the contents for flood damage' the contents of the castle were the insurance for flood damage.

dasil003• 12 years ago

Hopefully they didn't keep any other 500 year old books in the cellars.

thret• 12 years ago

The smell of an old book that hasn't been opened in decades is distinctive and pleasant, filled with happy memories. So at the risk of sounding creepy, and as a fan of second hand book stores and old books - I wonder how this book smells?

I have only looked at really old books through glass, I've never held one.

tdumitrescu2• 12 years ago

15th-century paper has a fairly different smell from aged 19th-/20th-century books; it was generally made from a pressed paste of old rags and clothes (broken down by boiling). i have no idea how to describe the smell in a way that distinguishes it from newer 'antiquarian' books, since it's still a musty smell, a bit like some old drywall and construction materials. that said, parchment manuscripts from the same period (written on animal skins) have a very similar smell, so maybe it's more the dust and binding materials than the paper itself which is the main component.

xoe26• 12 years ago

This reminded me of something I read in a book about perfume.

"Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin. When made into paper and stored for years, it breaks down and smells good. Which is how divine providence has arranged for secondhand bookstores to smell like good quality vanilla absolute......"[1]

[1] Turin, Luca, and Tania Sanchez. Perfumes: The A-Z Guide. London: Profile, 2009.

marincounty• 12 years ago

If you are interested in buying First Edition books, now seems to be a good time? I'm not sure why? Most of those prices you see in Price Guides are too high. Someone told me the younger generations disinterest in First Ed. Books is generational?(The minimalist generation?) Iv've thought about donating my library(mostly reference) to a non-profit--Guidestar approved; make sure the non-profit isn't a scam(hit free preview--look at taxes).

I don't think I will depart with my first editions though, there's just something special about them?

tdumitrescu2• 12 years ago

FYI this is one of 18 known surviving copies of Caxton's translation of the "Stories of Troy," not a completely unique item...except that every surviving print or manuscript from this period really is uniquely valuable, taking into account marginal annotations, bindings, stop-press corrections, etc (which are often of greater academic interest than just another printed copy of a known text). It's crazy to think how many scholarly treasures might be sitting unknown in the private possession of rich collectors, things which could change academic views significantly were they available for study (for example, there are so few surviving music manuscripts produced in England in the later 15th century that any new discovery changes the lay of the land).

First printed book in English sold for over £1m

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