Article January 9, 1902 Issue

Highest Price for a Book

with contributions from Faber

New York Herald

J. Pierpont Morgan is credited with having paid for a Latin Psalter, during his last visit to Europe, the sum of nearly twenty-six thousand dollars, said to be the highest price ever paid for a single book. The book, which is the Psalimorum Codex, printed by Fust and Schaeffer in 1459, is now in this city, in Mr. Morgan's safety vault.

Among bibliophiles in this country and Europe Mr. Morgan's purchase has been a topic of conversation for several months. The Latin Psalter, of which there are only twelve copies in existence, is one of those treasured volumes whose fortunes are followed with interest by book lovers. In value and typographical magnificence it is considered superior even to the Gutenberg Bible, one copy of which is valued at nearly twenty-five thousand dollars.

According to the librarian at the Lenox Library, Mr. Morgan purchased the Psalimorum Codex from a son of the late M. Quaritch, a great London bookseller. Mr. Quaritch bought the volume at a sale in 1884, paying for it about $24.750. He never found a purchaser, and the price at which it was disposed of by his son made the transaction a losing one, taking into consideration the interest on the investment.

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