The 12th codex Calixtinus, an illuminated guide for pilgrims going to the shrine of Compostela in Spain, has been stolen from the cathedral library. Reports suggest that it was a professional job. More at eChurch blog. It sounds as if it was stolen to order and is perhaps now in some private collection. If so, it will reappear.
More important is the question of whether the library had photographed it or not. If a set of colour digital photographs exist — and ought to be online — then the loss is less worrying.
Bet they haven’t tho.
Google: Cod.Cal.facsimile gives this:
Full-color reproduction of the entire
manuscript, 250 folios (450 pages) in the
original format, 21 x 29.5 cm, printed on
special vegetable parchment.
… further down the page:
“Price on request”!!!
PS on above. It was not insured, because in
1990 the insurance would have cost 6mill.euros!
Thank you! Worrying about “price on request”. This isn’t how things should be.
I don’t see the point in insuring unique items.
If you have to ask . . .
James Snapp, Jr.
I wonder, tho, whether even millionaires — at least those who made their money themselves — much like “we’re going to charge a HUGE amount”.
I guess a lot of art books are printed overseas in Hong Kong for price and skill reasons, so the price probably is affected by the prices there, and whatever package delivery price the publishers decide to use, and what customs charges are in various countries. Especially if it’s a sort of high class print-on-demand situation for the facsimile book.
I suspect that the costs of production are a small part of the final price, tho. In these days, it is relatively cheap to produce books in small quantities.