se sale in 1768 it became the
property of Count McCarthy for 1,200 francs; and from his sale, in
Paris, in 1815, it passed into Mr. Grenville's library for 6,260
francs--in other words, it had advanced in value in forty-six years from
L48 to close on L250. It subsequently passed into the British Museum.
Early in the present century, Nicol, the King's bookseller, obtained the
copy on vellum, formerly in the University of Mentz; at his sale in 1825
it was bought by H. Perkins, the book-collecting brewer (Barclay,
Perkins and Co.), for L504, and at the sale of his library it fetched
L3,400, Mr. Ellis purchasing it for Lord Ashburnham. In 1824 Mr. Perkins
bought Sir M. M. Sykes' copy of the same book on paper for L199 10s.,
and this copy in 1873 fetched L2,960. James Perry, of the _Morning
Chronicle_, had a copy on paper, which, at his sale in 1822, the Duke of
Sussex purchased for 160 guineas; and this copy, at the Duke's sale in
1844, brought L190. The record price for the 'Mazarin' Bible was not
reached until December, 1884, when the Syston Park library of Sir John
Thorold came under the hammer at Sotheby's, and this particular Bible on
paper sold for L3,900 to Mr. Quaritch, or L500 more than the practically
unique one on vellum. In June, 1887, the Earl of Crawford's copy, which
was not a particularly good one, realized L2,000, Mr. Quaritch having
purchased it about thirty years previously for rather more than a
quarter of the amount. In 1889 yet another copy turned up at
Sotheby's--it came from the Earl of Hopetoun's library--and this sold at
the same figure. We may also refer here to the second edition of the
Bible, 1462, but the first printed book with a date. The Edwards copy on
vellum of this sold in 1815 for L175; in 1823 a very fine example was
sold for L215; in 1873 the Perkins copy, which had cost its owner L173,
sold for L780; and eight years later the Sunderland example on vellum
for L1,600.

[Illustration: _A Corner in the British Museum._]

The palm of the highest price ever paid for a single book must be
awarded to the 'Psalmorum Codex,' printed, like the last, by Fust and
Schoeffer in 1459. By the side of this the Gutenberg Bible is a common
book, and Sir John Thorold's example is the only one which has occurred
in the market for almost a century. This particular copy realized 3,350
francs in the McCarthy sale, and 130 guineas in that of Sir M. M. Sykes;
but at the Thorold sale, in 1884, it fetched L4,950