Oldest privately owned book sells for £3mn at UK sale

Oldest privately owned book sells for £3mn at UK sale

The Crosby-Schoyen Codex is one of the earliest books in existence
The Crosby-Schoyen Codex is one of the earliest books in existence. Photo: JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Source: AFP

The world's oldest book in a private collection, and one of the earliest books in existence, sold at auction in London on Tuesday for more than £3 million.

The Crosby-Schoyen Codex was previously owned by the Norwegian businessman and rare book collector Martin Schoyen, and contains the earliest complete copies of two texts from the Bible -- the book of Jonah and Peter's first epistle.

Bidding for the text at Christie's auction house started at £1.7 million for a mix of enthusiastic online and in-person bidders.

It sold for £3,065,000 ($3,898,000) including taxes to an anonymous phone bidder.

The codex was discovered by Egyptian farmers in the 1950s.

It was originally copied by a monk in what is now Egypt around the fourth century AD, making it at least 1,600 years old and far older than more renowned ancient texts such as the Gutenberg Bible, which dates from the 1450s.

Read also

Saudi Aramco says foreigners grab 'majority' of share offering

PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find the “Recommended for you” block on the home page and enjoy!

Written in Coptic script on double-sided papyrus leaves now preserved between plexiglass plates, the ancient biblical text represents advances in written technology at a time when single-sided scrolls were more commonplace.

Twelve additional select pieces from the Schoyen Collection also went up for auction alongside the literary jewel.

The entire collection comprises over 20,000 pieces, spanning 5,000 years of history from 3,500 BC to the present day, according to its website.

Although impressive, the sale is far from the highest selling price for a rare text.

Last year, the Codex Sassoon -- a Hebrew Bible more than 1,000 years old -- sold for $38.1 million at Sotheby's in New York in a new record.

That surpassed the $30.8 million that Microsoft founder Bill Gates paid in 1994 for Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicester manuscript.

Read also

Virgin Galactic completes final spaceflight before two-year pause

The most expensive historical document remains one of the first prints of the US Constitution, which Sotheby's sold for $43 million in November 2021.

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.