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+--- Thread: The 600 ducat question (/thread-157.html)
RE: The 600 ducat question - Diane - 19-02-2016
It would certainly be of interest if there were a seller who wrote "sold to the Emperor, who paid cash on delivery, in the sum of 600 ducats, one manuscript entitled......"
Good luck and happy hunting.
RE: The 600 ducat question - Searcher - 27-07-2017
Is this an accidental sum or just some kind of speculation?
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RE: The 600 ducat question - ReneZ - 27-07-2017
(13-02-2016, 09:04 AM)david Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Has anyone ever managed to work out a realistic assumption of the purchasing worth of 600 ducats at that moment in time?
Searcher made me see this old question again.
One ducat had 3.5 grams of gold, so 600 ducats are 2.1 kg of gold.
One can try to interpret the buying power of this over time.
Nowadays, this is around 90,000 US$ .
During Wilfrid's lifetime it was 1400 US$ (presently about 35,000 US$ through inflation).
Both amounts are not excessive for rare books.
When Kraus was asking over 100,000 dollars for the book, the above-mentioned amount of gold
was worth less than 2500 dollars.
RE: The 600 ducat question - Koen G - 27-07-2017
Rene, don't the examples you show in the first posts suggest that the VM would have been Rudolph's most expensive single book by a significant margin?
How come it's never mentioned or recorded? He apparently thought it was a hundred times more valuable than the classics. Of course there might have been a quantity discount there, but 99% off? Thats a steal.
RE: The 600 ducat question - ReneZ - 27-07-2017
Well, we don't know that the reported price would have been for this MS alone, and in fact I consider it more likely to have been part of a set of books.
He "paid" 500 florins for one book here:
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(so that's fairly close).
He also paid 300 Taler to Giordano Bruno for his book dedicated to him. The record does not mention the price:
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Since I found only about 20 or so book acquisitions in the transcribed part of the records, which is only a very tiny fraction of the books he acquired, it is clear that we only have a very fragmentary view.
What's more, these transcribed records are just summaries. The actual documents (M.Staudinger called them "Akten" and I am unsure about the proper English equivalent) have all been lost.
RE: The 600 ducat question - Anton - 27-07-2017
Quote:Searcher made me see this old question again.
One ducat had 3.5 grams of gold, so 600 ducats are 2.1 kg of gold.
One can try to interpret the buying power of this over time.
Nowadays, this is around 90,000 US$ .
During Wilfrid's lifetime it was 1400 US$ (presently about 35,000 US$ through inflation).
Both amounts are not excessive for rare books.
When Kraus was asking over 100,000 dollars for the book, the above-mentioned amount of gold
was worth less than 2500 dollars.
This calculation does not take into account that the value of gold (in terms of its purchasing power) also changes over time, not only the value of money does (inflation). Around 1600 it was several times lower than today.
Quote:Rene, don't the examples you show in the first posts suggest that the VM would have been Rudolph's most expensive single book by a significant margin?
Technically, we don't know if the sum was paid for the VMS exclusively, or for a set of books containing the VMS among others. The Mnisovsky report is vague upon this.
RE: The 600 ducat question - Searcher - 27-07-2017
600 pounds. How much is this?
RE: The 600 ducat question - Anton - 27-07-2017
In terms of purchasing power, 600 pounds in 1580 would be something around 170000 pounds today.
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RE: The 600 ducat question - Searcher - 27-07-2017
(27-07-2017, 03:01 PM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.In terms of purchasing power, 600 pounds in 1580 would be something around 170000 pounds today.
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I used You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. converter into dollars. It gives approximately 228 000 dollars.
RE: The 600 ducat question - Anton - 27-07-2017
With USD/pound = 1.3 that's basically the same thing.