The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has purchased the printer's copy of the Book of Mormon for $35 million (£26 million), establishing what is thought to be a new world record for the most expensive manuscript ever sold.

As per the LDS-owned publication the Deseret News, the booklet is a handwritten replica of the original text dictated by Joseph Smith. The Mormon church obtained it from the Community of Christ, a religion founded by early Mormons and originally known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which likewise regards the scripture as holy. The Community of Christ publicized the selling price, claiming The Book of Mormon was the most ever paid for a manuscript, surpassing Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates's $30.8 million 1994 purchase of Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicester.

"As far as I am aware, it is possibly the benchmark for a manuscript," stated Mark James of Bernard Quaritch, an antique bookshop. "However, $31 million from 1994 would be significantly more valuable now."

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Price at launch: $35 million

Published by: Joseph Smith

Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft, is a well-known enthusiastic reader, and his private library is stocked with rare volumes chosen by a licensed book dealer. In 1994, he acquired "Codex Leicester," a 16th-century manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci. He spent $30.8 million at auction for the notebook, making it the most costly book ever sold.

Gates has loaned the notebook to a number of institutions this summer. The Codex Leicester, which is now on exhibit at the Minneapolis Art institute, will move to the Carolina Art museum in Raleigh on 31 October. Prior to its exhibition in Minneapolis, the text was on display at the Phoenix Arts Center.

The 72-page notebook, written between 1506 and 1510, gives a unique view inside da Vinci's thoughts, filled with drawings, schematics, and early revisions of ideas. The "Codex Leicester" is one of thirty scientific publications attributed to Da Vinci, although many see it as the most significant. The text was written in typical Da Vinci's renowned mirror-image manner, which requires that the words be viewed from the right to the left. The words were portrayed in an archaic form of Italian and are translated on touchscreens located around the exhibit.

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Price at launch: $30.8 million

Author: Leonardo da Vinci

David Rubenstein, a private equity tycoon and philanthropist, has acquired an incredible collection of historical papers and artifacts believed to be worth $50 million. Rather than keeping his prizes to himself, he has prominently exhibited them across the nation's capital.

His Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, hangs in the Office, while his replica of the thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery and was also signed by Lincoln, is on display at the Smithsonian. And the Library of Congress keeps one of the oldest maps of post-revolutionary America. Rubenstein's most recent acquisition—the $14.2 million Bay Psalms Book, considered to be America's first book—will shortly be given to libraries around the nation.

However, the centerpiece of his collection is currently housed in the David M. Rubenstein Exhibit, a roughly $14 million display dedicated to legal rights. The exhibition's centerpiece is Rubenstein's 1297 Magna Carta, one amongst four known to survive. This Magna Carta copy is also the only one that is privately held.

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Price at launch: $21.3M

Author: King John of England

In line with the season of shopping and giving, serial philanthropist David M. Rubenstein crossed another item off his "patriotic philanthropy" to-do list this week. The co-founder of the Carlyle Group, Forbes magazine's 209th richest American, bought a staggering $14.2 million for a duplicate of the Bay Psalm Book, thought to have been the first hardbound book printed in what then turned into the United States.

The Bay Psalm Book was published in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is one of just 11 surviving copies, making it one of the most sought-after publications in the world. It is also the most costly at the moment. Rubenstein, 64, submitted his offer Tuesday by phone from Australia, where he has been soliciting assets for his private equity business, which distributes the cash on behalf of its customers. He said that he will loan the book to many libraries on a rotating basis.

"I believed it was critical to keep this legendary American manuscript in the country, and I believed I could educate more Americans about its importance — and the relevance of writings to our country — by displaying it in libraries across the country that wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to showcase something so old and rare," Rubenstein explained.

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Price at launch: $14.2 million

Transcribed by: Richard Mather

The British Archive in London has acquired Europe's oldest unbroken book, dubbed the St. Cuthbert Gospel, for almost $14 million. It is a copy of St. John's Gospel, believed to have been created in northeastern England in the seventh century.

Claire Breay is the British Library's supervisor of ancient modern manuscripts. According to her, the book's exquisitely designed red leather front is an excellent illustration of Anglo-Saxon leather craftsmanship, and the inside is amazingly well-preserved. "The content is brilliantly crafted and seems to have been penned yesterday," she comments.

"St. Cuthbert Gospel is the oldest surviving European book in its entirety. Thus, the book's pages, the stitching that binds them intact, and the coverings that preserve the pages are all intact, as they were when it was created at the end of the 7th century” she continues. "As such, it serves as the foundation for our proof for the Western book's history."

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Price at launch: $14M

Author: An 8th-century historian

A $13.6 million phone call landed Kerry Stokes a rare and magnificent piece of art that would soon be on display in Melbourne. The Rothschild Prayer Book is a 500-year-old illustrated manuscript. The book, which had not been seen publicly for decades, was bought last year at auction by the Australian entrepreneur. Kerry Stokes purchased it at auctions for $15.5 million and it is presently on exhibit at the Ian Potter Gallery.

The Rothschild Prayer Book, together with 60 other pieces from Stokes' collection, has been loaned to the University of Melbourne's Ian Potter Museum. The exhibition is free and will be accompanied by lectures by foreign and Australian researchers.

While many affluent individuals see fine art as a prudent investment, Stokes, according to the gallery's administrator, Erica Persak, has a genuine enthusiasm for it. "The collection spans 45 years of his lifetime," she explains, demonstrating that the Channel Seven chief is not limited to sports and television.

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Price at launch: $13.6 million

Author: N/A

Henry the Lion - Count of Saxony - commissioned the Gospels of Henry the Lion for the Virgin Mary altar at the church of Saint Blaise's Abbey in Brunswick, also known as Brunswick Cathedral. The book is widely regarded as a masterpiece of 12th-century Romanesque book illumination. At the Helmarshausen Abbey, the gospel book was commissioned for the duke.

The church at Brunswick was completed in 1174, and the Virgin Mary's altar was built in 1188. Historically, most experts dated the gospel book's production around 1175 ("early dating"), but the consensus now places it about 1188. ("late dating"). The manuscript, which contains 266 pages of text from the four gospels and 50 full-page pictures, was sold at auction for £8,140,000 on December 6, 1983, at Sotheby's in London.

German governments, Saxony and Bavaria, the Foundation Preußischer Kulturbesitz, and individual contributors funded the purchase price as part of a German national effort for the purpose of indigenous assets (largely from Brunswick). It was the world's most costly book till 1994, after Bill Gates purchased the Codex Leicester, a Leonardo da Vinci manuscript. The Gospels of Henry the Lion, which has been preserved in its whole and includes 50 full-page miniatures, is now housed at Wolfenbüttel's Herzog August Bibliothek and exhibited only every two years for security concerns.

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Price at launch: $11.7 million

Commissioned by: Henry the Lion

The nineteenth-century masterwork, which has 435 hand-colored images, has long been regarded as a seminal work on natural history in the United States. The winning offer of $11,500,000 was placed by an unnamed collector over telephone, according to auction house Sotheby's. Indeed, since each image is considered precious, there were concerns that the volume would be divided and sold as individual pieces of art. However, experts believe that is improbable, given it is potentially more valuable intact.

"No one comes close to John James Audubon in terms of frontier elegance," Heather O'Donnell, a specialist at New York's Bauman Rare Books, remarked. "The account of his lonesome voyage into the American woods and his effort to capture what he had seen there lends the Birds of America an emotional depth that no other books can equal."

Audubon was regarded as a naturalist and an artist, with an unmatched ability to observe, categorize, and depict birds. And, according to those specialists, the exorbitant price was paid not just for the aesthetic worth of Birds of America, but also for its scientific merit.

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Price at launch: $11.5 million

Author: John James Audubon

At position number 9, we have Chaucer's famed stories of medieval disasters, "The Canterbury Tales." Only twelve copies of the initial issue of this English classic novel remain in existence today, having been produced in 1477.

Chaucer's lengthy poem chronicles the trip of a bunch of pilgrims, 31 of whom include Chaucer himself. They travel from Southwark to the shrine of St Thomas in Canterbury Cathedral. The innkeeper proposes that each of the pilgrims tell two stories on the journey out and another two on the journey back home to pass the time on the trip. The best narrator is to be awarded upon their return with a complimentary meal.

In 1988, one of these surviving unique versions of "The Canterbury Tales" was auctioned, inspiring the late British millionaire John Paul Getty Jr. to spend an astounding $7.5 million to acquire it. As of today, this exceedingly rare edition is the ninth most pricey book ever sold.

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Price at launch: $7.5 million

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

In a titanium vault in Tokyo, one of the few surviving copies of the world's first printed book is kept: the Gutenberg Bible, simply designated as number 45. In 1987, Maruzen Company of Japan acquired the book for $5.4 million ($US12.9 million now). It is now housed at Keio University, where accessibility to the book is very limited, however a digital copy is available online for viewing.

Prior to its journey to Japan, the work was part of a collection assembled by Estelle Betzold Doheny from America , the only woman on the planet to acquire one of these enigmatic tomes.

Estelle Betzold Doheny, the widow of one of America's richest men, is one of just a few women who gather old books, and she has collected one of the West's most magnificent libraries. The purchase of the Gutenberg Bible, widely regarded as the most significant printed book of all time, would elevate her to the ranks of history’s finest book collectors. Its arrival marks the end of a 40-year search, and she cherishes the experience as much as she did with the item itself.

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Price at launch: $5.4 million

Author: Johann Gutenberg