The oldest book you own?

The Mad Hatter

MagicMarker wrote: »

Stalin!?! pfft....

Get yourself the 1938 MOTY.

Heh, yeah, I saw that when I went looking on Wikipedia for the year Stalin got it.

dr gonzo

I came across some old Dickens in a charity shop in London (I'm sure they're a dime a dozen). I ended up buying a copy of the pickwick papers which was not only from the early 20th century but it has a fantastic little inscription in it (which I cant recall). But to mirror a point above, I love the idea of the amount od shelves its sat on and the lives its been in, and the inscription is a small little insight into one of those lives 100 years ago. Wonderful!

Fenian Army

Prayer book from the 1850s, beautiful book, mind boggling when you think about it

Einhard

hooplah wrote: »

I have a page from the Nuremberg Chronicle. Printed in 1493 it's a world history based on the best information available at the time, mostly the Bible(!). It was actually printed 5 years before Columbus 'discovered' America which I think is mindblowing.

Can I have it?

Please?

Seriously, that's an amazing thing to have. Mind if I ask how you got your hands on it? I was in Florence a few years back, and some antiquarian bookshops were selling single capital letters from medieval manuscripts for over €100! :eek:

hooplah

Einhard wrote: »

Seriously, that's an amazing thing to have. Mind if I ask how you got your hands on it? I was in Florence a few years back, and some antiquarian bookshops were selling single capital letters from medieval manuscripts for over €100! :eek:

Actually I got it from e-bay. There were quite a lot of copies of the book printed, and most have understandably been damaged over time so its fairly commonly available in single sheets. I did a god bit of research and was confident what I was buying was genuine and that no books had been harmed etc etc (a complete copy would be worth many times more than a full colection of single shets)

Cutting single letters out though? That strikes me as vandalism

getz

i have a book called, : the life of charlotte bronte: by e,c gaskell [elizabeth gaskell] ,its printed in 1866.

pauline fayne

The oldest book I have is 'The Rural Harp' by Patrick Reilly published in 1861 . It belonged to my grandfather . It is a book of verse , mainly about people and places around Meath / Monaghan .

Ken.

I have 2 really old books.
The first is called Historical and Future Eclipses( with notes on planets,double stars and other celestial matters) by Rev.S.J. Johnson, M.A. F.R.A.S. printed in 1896. It is incredibly accurate to this day and has eclipses that will happen until the year 2498. It reads 2498, 10 June. Ingress of Venus about half-past four this morning. Egress about noon. On the inside cover written in pencil is the name A Sullivan 1900. Also has Valuable book,out of print 1940.

The second book is called Class-Book of Geology by Sir Archibald Geikie, F.R.S. Printed in 1897. It is illustrated with woodcuts. There is a printed address label on the inside that is printed W.P. Webb, 5 Upper Ely Place,Dublin 1899.

r3nu4l

Nothing very old here but I do have a 1906 copy of 'Charles Dickens' by G. K. Chesterton.

I also had about twenty to thirty different books of the Famous Five (Enid Blyton) and the Three investigators (Alfred Hitchcock presents) series from the 1960's that my uncles and aunts owned when they were kids.

Not books but I also used to own loads of of 'commando' comics, from the 1960's and 1970's until they were thrown away by someone who thought I was 'finished' with them

Memory Of 98

I also have an encyclopedia of Ireland #Part 1 - 1900

It has some amazing hand drawn pictures in it, and it weighs about a ton.

getz

got some old newspapers from 1858

clarabows

CONFESSIONS OF AN ACTOR by John Barrymore...1926, with dustjacket too

RDM_83 again

Neither of these are the oldest books owned but I enjoy the historic irony of them

I have: Poland: Key to Europe published 1939
My folks own: Recollections of troubled times in Irish politics published 1905


I remember the Trinity college Booksale used to be good for picking up old books for very cheap (I think the 1st day is reserved for dealers though)

Denerick

My bookish grandfather died about 10 years ago and left all his books to his bookish grandson. I've loads from the mid 19th century. The collection I'm most fond of is a set of encyclopedias from the turn of the century (20th) which probably were the single greatest motivation for me to go on to do a history degree. (The bias was outstanding - some of the articles on race and gender reflected the social darwinism of the day)

BopNiblets

Oldest published probably Don Quixote, 1605.
Not sure about printed, probably some 70s stuff I robbed from my parents bookcase.

Bannasidhe

Ireland under Elizabeth and James I published in Edinburgh in 1891, the complete set (7 vols) of Justin McCarthy's History of our own Times 1910 and my beloved Compossicion Booke of Conought 1936. All prized possessions.

I am sooooo jelous of hooplah and his page from a Nuremberg Bible.

The oldest document's I have held in my cotton gloved hands were signed by Henry VI in 1490.

kylith

I think I have one somewhere with an inscription dated 1903.

The oldest ones on my bookshelves are
The Sorrows of Satan or The Strange Experience of one Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire by Marie Corelli, dated 1917. It's a fantastic read.
Gone to Earth by Mary Webb, dated 1928.
Precious Bane, also by Mary Webb, also dated 1928. Those two look to be part of a set.
The Isles of Unwisdom by Robert Graves, dated 1952.

I got them all from a book sale in Trinity. I bought them for no other reason than they were nicely bound old books that would look nice on a shelf, and I've thouroughly enjoyed reading every one of them, especially Sorrows of Satan. I paid between 50c and €2 for them.

paddymayoman

Ulysess

Dr.Zeus

Mathematics for the Millions (1954)

It was probably v.exciting back then, alas......

Enkidu

Crádh agus Grádh - a feminist novel in Irish, from 1901.

I do have stuff from earlier but this one is maximises the combination of age and uniqueness.

ruthloss

The Mammoth Book of Thrillers-Ghosts and Mysteries. (1936)