WEBVTT - What's The Most Expensive Book In The World?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>It's me Christian Seger. Sometimes I like to imagine that

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<v Speaker 1>long after I'm dead, a wealthy philanthropist is going to

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<v Speaker 1>buy my diary for millions of dollars and lend it

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<v Speaker 1>to museums across the planet. Then everyone would finally know

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<v Speaker 1>the answer to today's question, what is the most expensive

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<v Speaker 1>book in the world? Something by William Shakespeare, the Necronomicon,

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<v Speaker 1>Twilight New Moon. Well, it all depends on if the

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<v Speaker 1>book is printed or if it's handwritten. If we're talking

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<v Speaker 1>books that have had multiple copies printed, then the answer

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<v Speaker 1>is the Bay Psalm Book, which sold for more than

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<v Speaker 1>fourteen million dollars in November. It was originally printed by

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<v Speaker 1>Puritans in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in sixteen forty. Seeking religious freedom,

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<v Speaker 1>these settlers wanted their own translation of the Old Testament. Today,

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<v Speaker 1>there are only eleven copies remaining, and it is considered

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<v Speaker 1>the first book printed in America. But if we include

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<v Speaker 1>one of a kind handwritten texts, then the base Som

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<v Speaker 1>book isn't even worth half the value of the most

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<v Speaker 1>expensive book ever sold. That title goes to Leonardo da

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<v Speaker 1>Vinci's Codex Lester, which sold for thirty point eight million

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<v Speaker 1>dollars in nine to a little known computer programmer by

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<v Speaker 1>the name of Bill Gates. Adjust that amount for inflation,

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<v Speaker 1>and today the Codex is almost worth fifty million dollars.

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<v Speaker 1>In fact, that's forty million, five thousand, five hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>sixty one dollar and forty cents if you want to

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<v Speaker 1>be technical. It's an unbound, seventy two page notebook filled

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<v Speaker 1>with da Vinci's drawings and thoughts, mainly about how to

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<v Speaker 1>move water. Yeah, the most expensive book in the world

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<v Speaker 1>is basically a plumbing manual. More on that in a minute.

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<v Speaker 1>A lot of da Vinci's writing was lost to history,

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<v Speaker 1>almost half of it, in fact, So the Codex Lester

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<v Speaker 1>is mainly important because it's a single collection of his

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<v Speaker 1>focused ideas. The Codex is written, like many of da

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<v Speaker 1>Vinci's works, in something called mirror hand. All the letters

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<v Speaker 1>are reversed and it's written from right to left, so

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<v Speaker 1>the only way you can read it is when it's

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<v Speaker 1>held up to a mirror, and you probably need a

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<v Speaker 1>fluency and antiquated Italian as well. So it's a book

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<v Speaker 1>about water that's written backwards. Well, to be fair, that's

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<v Speaker 1>oversimplifying things a bit. It's primarily about how astronomy and

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<v Speaker 1>geology relate to water, considering the functionality of tides, eddies,

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<v Speaker 1>and dams. Really, da Vinci was trying to figure out

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<v Speaker 1>how to harness the power of moving water. He demonstrates

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<v Speaker 1>how pressure increases with depth in a fluid, and the

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<v Speaker 1>Codex examines configurations of siphons and differently shaped pipes. He's

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<v Speaker 1>particularly interested in the fluid mechanics of how water moves

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<v Speaker 1>around obstacles. This manuscript was first purchased in seventeen seventeen

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<v Speaker 1>by a guy named Thomas Coke, who later became the

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<v Speaker 1>Earl of Leicester, hence the title Codex Lester. But in

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<v Speaker 1>night an art collector named armand Hammer bought it, changing

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<v Speaker 1>its name to the more badass Codex Hammer. This only

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<v Speaker 1>lasted fourteen years, though, until Gates bought it and changed

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<v Speaker 1>it back. Then he made it into a screensaver for windows. Actually,

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<v Speaker 1>Gates seems genuinely inspired by da Vinci's example of pushing

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<v Speaker 1>himself to find more knowledge. He's even loaned the book

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<v Speaker 1>to a number of museums over the years so it

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<v Speaker 1>can be viewed and studied by the public. So that's

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<v Speaker 1>the most expensive book in the world for now, until

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<v Speaker 1>the Codex Sager hits the Southebys auction block. Check out

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<v Speaker 1>the brainstuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this

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<v Speaker 1>and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.