One Of World’s Tiniest Books—The Size Of A Pencil Head—Sells At Auction

One of the world’s smallest books has sold at an auction in Brussels, Belgium, for €4,200 (US$4,760). 

The leather-bound title, which is smaller than the head of a pencil at 5mm by 5mm (0.19 inches), was a prayer book containing the Lord’s Prayer in Dutch, English, American English, French, German, Spanish, and Swedish. 

It was initially estimated to fetch between €1,000 and €1,500 but an anonymous bidder paid more than twice the amount for the book—which, due to its minute size, cannot be read with the naked eye.

“The printed text is so minuscule that you cannot read it with the naked eye but need a strong magnifying glass,” said Henri Godts, the auctioneer.

According to The Guardian, several hundred copies of the work, titled The Lord’s Prayer, was published by the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany in 1952. It had been part of a fundraising drive to pay for the museum’s reconstruction works following World War II. 

Not just a place for exhibitions, the Gutenberg Museum is home to one of the world’s oldest printing museums, and was named after Johannes Gutenberg, the man who brought mechanical printing to Europe in the 15th century. The auctioned-off title came with the metal printing plates used to make it.

“The copy has been in a collection for dozens of years and is kept in a jewel box as if it were a gem. You could even incorporate it into a transparent jewel and wear it around your neck, if you so wish,” suggested Godts. 

[via The Guardian, cover image via Arenberg Auctions]