The Canterbury Tales 1478 First printed edition; Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales 1478 First printed edition;
Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
Sold for: USD 7.5 million
Auction house: Christie's London
Sale date: 8 July 1998
Seller: Anonymous owner
Buyer: Billionaire philanthropist Sir Paul Getty
A first edition of "The Canterbury Tales," the English masterpiece by Geoffrey Chaucer, was sold in London for a record price of 4.6 million pounds ($7.5 million) to the billionaire philanthropist Sir Paul Getty.
Christie's, the auctioneers, had expected the book to fetch up to 700,000 pounds at the most.It was one of only 12 copies of the edition printed by William Caxton that are still in existence.
The book, sold at auction on Wednesday evening, was produced toward the end of the 15th century.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Canterbury Tales (Middle English: Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387–1400. In 1386, Chaucer became Controller of Customs and Justice of Peace and, three years later, Clerk of the King's work in 1389. It was during these years that Chaucer began working on his most famous text, The Canterbury Tales. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return