The World’s Most Expensive Books

Combined, these books are worth $286 million.

The World’s Most Expensive Books

Recently, a rare first-edition copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” sold for $90,000 at auction, mainly because the title was misspelled and the book itself contained typos. While $90,000 is a lot of money, that price tag is minuscule compared to what the books on this list have sold for.

To compile this article, we looked at the most expensive books to have ever sold and adjusted their sale price for inflation in 2019 dollars. We did not include books that were solely made of art — for example, the “The Lilies” sold for $5.5 million in 1985, but the volumes were made of individual watercolors, which were later divided among investors.

We also didn’t count the two-page “Founding Rules of Basketball,” which sold for $4.3 million in 2010 but falls more into the category of sports memorabilia than books.

'Tales of Beedle the Bard'

Original price: $3.98 million

Inflation-adjusted price: $4.89 million

The only modern author to make this list is J.K. Rowling, whose hand-illustrated and hand-written book “Tales of Beedle the Bard” fetched $3.98 million at a 2007 charity auction. Rowling created seven of these books; six were given out as gifts and one was used to raise money for Rowling’s children’s charity (now known as Lumos), which works to place orphaned children in loving homes.

These original copies of “Tales of Beedle the Bard” are bound in leather and encrusted with semi-precious gems, but Rowling also turned the story into a book for the regular reader—you can a paperback edition for $6 on Amazon. In 2016, another of the six originals sold for $467,000.

The First Atlas

Original price: $3.9 million

Inflation-adjusted price: $4.91 million

Also known as the “Cosmographia," “Geographia” or simply "The Geography," and written by the Greco-Roman Claudius Ptolemy, this book is considered the world’s first printed atlas. It is believed to be only one of three remaining copies of printed in the early 15^th century and sold for $3.9 million in 2006.

The original “Geographia” was created circa 150 AD; you can check out a later version of the atlas — and its 27 hand-drawn maps — at the World Digital Library.

'Treatsie of Fruit-Trees'

Original price: $4.5 million

Inflation-adjusted price: $5.8 million

A spectacularly boring book all about fruit trees written in the 18^th century fetched $4.6 million in Brussels in 2006. However, the draw of this sale was likely the beautiful fruit tree paintings included in the set. You can read all about the 16 different fruit trees and their varietals on Archive.org.

The Northumberland Bestiary

Original price: $4.1 million

Inflation-adjusted price: $7.97 million

This bestiary is an awesome collection of animals, monsters and moral tales from the mid-13^th century. it includes pictures and tales of hydras, satyrs, elephants, donkeys, panthers and apes in its beautifully illustrated pages, which you can see read here. The book sold for $4.1 million in 1990 but is currently owned by the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Shakespeare’s First Folio

Original price: $6.2 million (2001)

Inflation-adjusted price: $8.86 million

William Shakespeare’s First Folio is one of the most coveted books in the English language, and it has a price to match. One copy sold at auction in New York for $6.166 million in 2001, and five years later, another copy fetched $5.153 million. In 2016 a set of the first four editions of Shakespeare’s first folios fetched $3.68 million at auction. That included a first edition of the First Folio that had previously not been known to exist.

Babylonian Talmund

Original price: $9.3 million

Inflation-adjusted price: $10.84 million

The Babylonian Talmund is one of only 14 complete multi volume sets from the early 16^th century still in existence.

The buyer attempted to remain anonymous, but reports say the book was purchased in 2015 by billionaire Leon Black, an investor, art collector and founder of Apollo Global Management.

The book is the most expensive piece of Judaica to ever sell at auction. Previously, it had been sitting at Westminster Abbey for some 400 years, where apparently no one knew how valuable it was.

'The Canterbury Tales'

Original price: $7.5 million

Inflation-adjusted price: $11.69 million

An extremely rare 1477 first edition of Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ sold for $7.5 million in 1998 to the highest bidder, the late British billionaire and philanthropist John Paul Getty Jr. There are only a dozen known copies of the first edition in existence.

The Gutenberg Bible

Original price: $5.4 million (1987)

Inflation-adjusted price: $12 million

The Gutenberg Bible was the first complete book to be printed from movable type in 1455, and as such, was one of the books that changed the world. Understandably this book has a hefty price tag. But since there was no Gutenberg Bible in Japan in 1987, the Maruzen Company, a Japanese bookseller, purchased an incomplete copy for $5.4 million. There are 49 Gutenberg Bibles known to exist, but only 21 are complete. You can flip through one of them at the University of Texas at Austin’s website.

'Birds of America'

Original price: $11.5 million

Inflation-adjusted price: $13.5 million

Copies of John James Audubon’s illustrated awe-inspiring four-volume set , “Birds of America” have fetched millions of dollars several times. In 2000, a Qatari prince and art collector purchased one for $8.8 million ($13 million today). Another copy sold for $5 million in 2005 ($6.5 million today), and in 2010, the highest bid went for $11.5 million ($13.5 million today). In 2012, another full edition “Birds of America” sold for $7.9 million ($8.75 million today) and in 2018, another copy sold for $9.6 million.

Adjusted for inflation, these copies of “Birds of America” have sold for a total of $50.6 million.

The Rothschild Prayerbook

Original price: $13.6 million

Inflation-adjusted price: $14.6 million (2013)

The Rothschild Prayerbook is a 16^th century Flemish illuminated manuscript filled with incredible paintings by master Renaissance miniaturists and lined with gold. The book takes its name from the wealthy Rothschild family, who acquired the book sometime after 1868 (it’s unknown where it had been in the prior 350 years). In 1938, the book was stolen by the Nazis; four years later, Hitler gave it to the National Library in Vienna. Incredibly, the library refused to return it to the Rothschilds. It wasn’t until 1999 that the book would be returned to its rightful owners.

The Rothschild Prayerbook first sold to an anonymous bidder in 1999 for $13.38 million ($20.4 million when adjusted for inflation). It sold again in 2014 to billionaire Australian businessman Kerry Stokes for 13.6 million. Adjusted for inflation, the value of the book has decreased by nearly $7 million.

The Bay Psalm Book

Original price: $14.165 million

Inflation-adjusted price: $15.46 million

Printed in 1650, the Bay Psalm Book was printed 20 years after settlers landed at Plymouth Rock and is the first book printed to have been printed in British North America. In 1947, a copy of the Bay Psalm Book — there are 11 known to exist — broke world records for most expensive printed book sold when a copy of it sold at auction for $151,000 (about $1.8 million today). In 2013 it sold again at auction, and broke its own record when billionaire David Rubenstein purchased it for $14 million. He has loaned it out to various libraries.

The St. Cuthbert Gospel

Original price: $14 million (2012)

Inflation-adjusted price: $15.5 million

The earliest intact European book was purchased by the British Library in London in 2012 for $14 million after a successful fundraising effort. The gospel was buried with its owner and writer, St. Cuthbert, who died in 687. The book is remarkably good condition and still retains its binding and beautiful red cover, despite being 1,300 years old.

The gospel was unearthed in 1104 when Cuthbert’s remains were being moved from a grave to a shrine—and for a while, it was used as a protective talisman from time to time. By the early 17^th century the book was owned privately until it was donated to a Jesuit community in Belgium, where it remained for 250 years, reports NPR. You can check out the book at the British Library’s online digitized manuscripts database.

The Magna Carta

Original price: $21.3 million (2007)

Inflation-adjusted price: $26.1 million

A copy of the Magna Carta was on the auction block, and not in a museum, in 2007. Billionaire co-founder of the Carlyle Group, David Rubenstein, alarmed that the historic (but not quite priceless) manuscript would end up with an owner overseas, decided to plunk down a $19 million bid for the copy (including fees and commissions, the final cost was $21.3 million). Rubenstein, who also uses his $2.8 billion net worth for philanthropic efforts, put the Magna Carta back into the National Archives.

It’s unknown how many copies of the Magna Carta were made, but it’s estimated there were maybe 250 copies made. In 2015, an original copy of the Magna Carta was found in an old scrap book in a British coastal town (it’s speculated to be about $15 million, but it hasn't been put up for sale so its actual worth is unknown).

The Gospels of Henry the Lion

Original price: $11.7 million

Inflation-adjusted price: $29.86 million

The Gospels of Henry the Lion is an illuminated Romanesque book, published sometime during the late 12^th century and sold for $11.7 million in 1983. According to the New York Times, the book’s value was extremely high among the winner, a West German consortium, and they were willing to pay even more. King Henry the Lion was a crucial figure in founding Germany, and the bidders—which included the German federal government and private donors—pooled their money together to bring this book home. It is only displayed six weeks per year in the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel.

The Book of Mormon (Printer’s Manuscript)

Original price: $35 million

Inflation-adjusted price: $36.3 million

The Mormons have almost enough money to rival Bill Gates—the Church of Latter Day Saints is worth at least $40 billion— and they also aren’t afraid to spend big money on books. According to the LDS Church, this 1830 handwritten manuscript is a copy of the one that Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, dictated to his scribes.

It is also the manuscript used to typeset the original Book of Mormon. In 2017, was sold to the LDS Church by the Community of Christ, which had owned it for 114 years.

The Codex of Leicester

Original price: $30.8 million in 1994

Inflation-adjusted price: $52.8 million

Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex of Leicester, also known as the Codex Hammer, is the most expensive book ever sold. The 72-page linen manuscript includes Leonardo’s thoughts, theories and observations of the world, like the movement of water, fossils and the luminosity of the moon.

It sold for $30.8 million in 1994 to Bill Gates, who wasn’t yet the richest person in the world — although he was certainly wealthy. After buying the Codex, he had it digitally scanned, then released some images as screen savers and wallpapers for Windows 98 Plus. That’s quite a journey for a book written in 1510.