The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-09
THE DEAREST BOOK. |"
Many Manuscripts Have Brought Much More Than Pierpont
 Morgan's Psalter.

London News.
 What iasA book2 It. seems to be less tha wGoa 5hek he tG reproves Me.AIperican papers for saying that the Sum Of SzS,000 which an Amer ican millionaire is just reported to have paid for MT; Qua-itch's famous copy of the Fust-Schoeffer Psalter of 14o9 is "the highest price ever paid for a single book" The Athenaeum reminds us that the Ashburnham manuscript of sFhe Evangelia Quatuor" brought about twice that sum- But is it not permissible to say that book" in this sense of the word means a printed book? No doubt we must admit that there is ID good authority for such restriction of the Word-the New English dictionary gives us no help, at ieast-and yet most people will agree that when they speak of a book at random they do not include man useripts in their thought. Phrases like "the book trade" copyright in books" certainly bear out this limitation and we do not think the American papers were justly to be censured for saying 'boolrs'' when they ought to have confined their remark to printed books" As far as these are concerned, they seem to- have been right; no one is known as yet to have given as much as 5.2OO pounds. for a single printed book, just as Mir. Qua ritch's bid of 4,90J pounds for the same book at the Syston park sale in 1884 re- mains the largest sum which ever changed hands on a single book in the auction room. If manuscripts are to be taken into account, the question becomes much harder to answer. It seems to us, indeed, that it changes its ground altogether. A manuscript which is sold for thousands of pounds is usually in teresting for quite other reasons than those which affect the price of printed books; it rather falls into the category of pictures and the thousand and one objects of what Mrs. Caudle called big Otry and virtue.
 Do1 because they are the chief or sole authority on an important text. Others rise in price because they have been exquisitely writ ten or illustrated in way that makes them real works of other than literary art-it was no uncommon thing to bind medieval mass books and gospels in gold and jewels. We can hardly conn pare prices thus enhanced with those. brought by books pure and simple, If. anyone were lucky enough again to dis inter the indubitable manuscript of Hamlet" in Shakespeare's or even Ba- cons handwriting from some old muni- ment chest,. there can be little doubt that he could get for 1t almost anything he liked to ask during the modern craze of millionaires to attain notor1ety by the ownership of rare curiosities in litera- ture and art. At present the price of the Ashburnham Gospels has, at least, one rival. The Bulletin de TImpreinerie is our. authority for the statement that 4he German Governma ant paid 10000 hounds for the historical missal which was sent by Pope Leo x. to Henry VIII. along with the parchment which con ferred on that sovereign the right of assuming the title Of Defender of the Faith" which is shortly to appear on the new coinage of King Edward VII. It seems that the Merry Monarch, who did not greatly prize such relics, pre- sented this mlssal to the Duke of Ham ilton's ancestor-the father of the Duke who was killed in his duel with Mohun. as readers If Esmond" remember. It was finally sold at the great Hamilton sale. Perhaps the largest offer ever made