Valuable scientific documents

Liber Chronicarum (The Nuremberg Chronicle) Auction House: Christie's | Sale price: US$372,500 Official Estimate: US$250,000 to $300,000 | Date of sale: December 4, 2018 As a biblical paraphrase, Liber Chronicarum (better known as the "Nuremberg Chronicle") is not exactly a scientific document, but it does contains some important maps, so we've included it as an "artifact." From the auction description: " ... includes two important double-page maps: a fine world map based on Mela's Cosmographia of 1482, and a map of northern and central Europe by Hieronymus Münzer. The world map is one of only three 15th-century maps showing Portuguese knowledge of the Gulf of Guinea of about 1470. The map of Europe is closely associated with Nicolas of Cusa's Eichstätt map, with which it is thought to share a common manuscript source of c.1439-54. It is therefore claimed to be the first modern map of this region to appear in print." This book is a first edition of the most extensively illustrated book of the 15th century, and as books were colored by hand at that time, this copy is particularly finely colored and illuminated.