What's the oldest book you own?

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

I've been undertaking some research so I can do my own Medieval Fantasy story, and I've recently bought some books to read. One subject proved hard to find good quality books for, and that was the subject of Kiev Rūs, which is a period of Medieval Russian history, and... boy let me tell you, it is hard to find good quality and cheap books on that subject.
And in the process, I ended up going to a website called World of Books and buying a book titled "The Culture of Kiev Rūs" by Academician B.D. Grecov. Not had time to read it yet because of post-work stuff, but I have to say, it is lovely to look at:

But I had no idea of WHEN this book was published until after I bought it.

It was published in 1947. Grekov didn't first publish the book until 1944, so this is likely one of THE first English editions of the book. Which makes it THE oldest book I own.

So I have to wonder... does anyone else own a really old book, or a first edition book?

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

By the way, I had to check:
I got this book for £13.
The newest edition, printed in 1992, is being sold used on Amazon for £101.

 

[Jonaitis]

I have a collection of old commentaries of the New Testament published between 1850-1900, but most of them are falling apart. Some of them still have personally written notes in the opening blank pages by the original owners. One of them for example is a commentary on the Acts of the Apostles by Melancthon Jacobus, published during his lifetime, is not perfectly intact, but still readable.

 

[Blade]

I've never looked I believe its a bible my Dads mom had. Its old. It just happen to be the oldest.. praise GOD.

 

[Friedrich Rubinstein]

I have a couple of hymn- and prayer books from 1850-1920, but one of the oldest I think is this little book printed in 1840. It's Martin Luther's prefaces to the New Testament and the Psalms:

 

[Canuckster]

I've been undertaking some research so I can do my own Medieval Fantasy story, and I've recently bought some books to read. One subject proved hard to find good quality books for, and that was the subject of Kiev Rūs, which is a period of Medieval Russian history, and... boy let me tell you, it is hard to find good quality and cheap books on that subject.
And in the process, I ended up going to a website called World of Books and buying a book titled "The Culture of Kiev Rūs" by Academician B.D. Grecov. Not had time to read it yet because of post-work stuff, but I have to say, it is lovely to look at:

But I had no idea of WHEN this book was published until after I bought it.

It was published in 1947. Grekov didn't first publish the book until 1944, so this is likely one of THE first English editions of the book. Which makes it THE oldest book I own.

So I have to wonder... does anyone else own a really old book, or a first edition book?

My oldest book I own is The Murashu archive, 730 clay tablets (in digital format), found at Nippur, Babylon 1893, and published by Hermann Vollrat Hilprecht 1904. The archives are corporate records of the business dealings of the Jewish Babylonian Murashu clan who were the world’s first wealthy and powerful international banking family. The Murashu’s were landowners, agricultural managers and owners of the great Babylonian firm, Murashu Sons, between 464- 404 BC during the reigns of the Persian kings Artaxerxes I and Darius II. This was during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. I believe it was this banking firm based in Babylon that was responsible for putting the Jews in Jerusalem into unplayable debt, recorded in Nehemiah 5, and had seized all their property: “their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses…” Nehemiah rebuked them and they promised to restore their properties.

Today you can get old books for free cause the copyrights have expired and they’re now in the public domain. If my digital library was converted to print I would probably need to build a library building to store them.

The book you posted, “The Culture of Kiev Rus” by Academician B. D. Grecov, can be found here for free download: https://ia801707.us.archive.org/25/items/dli.ernet.14103/14103-The Culture Of Kiev Rus.pdf

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

The book you posted, “The Culture of Kiev Rus” by Academician B. D. Grecov, can be found here for free download:

I am aware that I could have gotten the PDF for it online. But you have to admit, there's something fun about actually owning the physical copy of an old book.