Envy.

I've always had a romantic image (and wanting) of old books. I think there is something magical in a early edition, authentically bound book. Whose hands have touched it's pages, what countries, homes and libraries has is rested in, why has it remained intact after all these years?

I have a meagre collection of old books -nothing rare or expensive (yet). I like to buy books of stories I like and authors I admire, but what's more, I particularly enjoy books with interesting personal inscriptions inside the covers, or notes and messages within the pages.

Not long before coming to Japan I read a book called "The Island of Lost Maps: a True Story of Cartographic Crime" by Miles Harvey. click here for a description

A good read for nerds like me.

What prompted this post?

The following article which left me envious of the new owner.



World's first printed atlas - 1477 edition - sells for record US$3.9 million

19:16:35 EDT Oct 10, 2006
Canadian Press

LONDON (AP) - The first atlas ever printed sold for a record US$3.9 million at auction Tuesday.
The sale at Sotheby's of the 1477 edition of Claudius Ptolemy's landmark atlas established a new record for any atlas ever sold at auction.
The atlas was part of a collection sold by the family of Lord Wardington, a prolific British map and atlas collector who died last year. It is one of only two copies still in private hands.
The price paid by a private collector, who was not present at the auction, eclipsed the previous record of $2.7 million, paid for the "Doria Atlas" sold at Sotheby's in October 2005.
Ptolemy was a Greek-speaking geographer, astronomer and astrologer who lived in Roman Egypt. He authored several scientific treatises that were influential on both Islamic and European science and devised maps and atlases of the Roman Empire.
"The price for the 1477 Ptolemy atlas was extraordinary - a fitting testimony to the rarity and importance of the work - but the excitement it generated was echoed throughout the sale," said Catherine Slowther, Head of Maps and Atlases at Sotheby's.


Money well spent if you ask me. What do you think?