PHILOSOPHY AND
RELIGION

Like the occult, this is a very old area featuring books that were originally handwritten, or even chiseled in stone. Although it is, perhaps, a little more volatile for the collector.

Advances in philosophy or religion usually take time to become noticed or recognized. Who was the leading living theologian, or leading philosopher at the turn of the twentieth century? The fact is that we don’t know yet. That is a lot of the enjoyment in collecting it. The hunt for the future in either field.

Much of this genre is collected as First Thus. It crosses cultural barriers, withstands the passage of time and transcends language. Few people today could read Plato in his original form, most people in the Western world would be lost in the ideograms of Confucius’ first editions, and don’t even think about Zoroaster.

I have always enjoyed reading in this area. Speculations, reasonings, conclusions about man, God and the universe are things that I find to be utterly fascinating. The more I read, the more I notice how right Socrates was all those centuries ago. Told he was the wisest man in Athens, he replied that he knew nothing, but that he was the only man in Athens who knew that he knew nothing. Collecting and reading all these nothings have given me hour upon hour of pleasure. Selling and dealing in them has been both profitable and rewarding.

It is a field full of small and obscure publishers, writers and thinkers, full of both tomorrow and the stuff of landfills. The successful collector will have both, and not only profit materially, but mentally and spiritually as well. Perhaps that is one of the best deals going.

Note on Bibles

The Bible is, at least in the Western world, the commonest book. I have seen numerous copies of it from the 1700s in yard sales in older communities. In Europe, it is not uncommon to find earlier copies. I have also seen and helped collectors build collections of the Bible in all its variations. Despite being old, however, few copies of the Bible are worth much. Rare and important Bibles are extremely rare and most are the property of libraries and museums. The Gutenberg Bible was also the first printed book and very valuable. The first Bible in any language, such as The Mentelin Bible in German printed in 1460, is usually valuable. Oddities and misprints, such as the Devil’s Bible which left a “not” or two out of the 10 commandments, are also desirable. Some Bibles, such as that illustrated by Gustave Dore, are valuable for the illustrations. The average Bible, however, even those 200 or more years old, are not worth much in the used book market.

One other facet of Bible collecting has to do with the practice of keeping family history on the blank pages. A bible owned by a prominent family, or showing the birth of a prominent person, might bring a good deal due to its historical value.