Last month I posted a link to information on book sizes ranging from "folio" to "sixty-fourmo." Not included in that list are the formats that are bigger than your average sheep. Last week the BBC reported that the "world's most expensive book" was to be sold by Sotheby's - referring to a complete edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America. It contains life-sized illustrations of the birds, and thus is a huge book.
The BBC article showed only a print, but I located a photo of another copy at the website of the Cincinnati Public Library (embedded above). It apparently is a "double elephant" folio format [the "elephant folio" is up to 23" tall, the "Atlas folio" up to 25" tall, and the double elephant is 50" tall.]
Reposted from 2010 to add this photo "from archives of Prague castle" (photo credit M. Peterka) found at Book Porn:
Yes, I have seen the comments that it may be a normal book and a very tiny librarian...
Sorry, but I believe it's "Audubon."
ReplyDeleteJerry, no "sorry" needed - I"m absolutely delighted to get mistakes corrected in the blog (I searched and found two additional "Audobon" entries in old posts.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks.
One more note: I think it's a woman in the photo from the archives of Prague castle. (Or maybe a very tiny woman...)
ReplyDelete-gem
I quite agree. Text amended. Tx.
DeleteThe Bhutan book at the University of Washington is something to behold! http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/about/past-displays/bhutan-the-worlds-biggest-book
ReplyDelete