World’s Smallest Book Sold for £3,500

One of the smallest books in all the world has been sold at auction.

The auction was held at Arenberg Auctions, Brussels, where the miniscule book was first valued at between €1,000 and €1,500.

The book, titled The Lord’s Prayer, is leather-bound and measures just 5mm by 5mm. It contains versions of the Lord’s Prayer in many languages- Dutch, English, American English, French, German, Spanish, and Swedish.

An anonymous buyer ended up buying the tiny tome for €3,500. Additional costs brought the final price to €4,200.

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

The book was one of only a few hundred published by the Gutenberg Museum, in 1952, set up to help raise funds to pay for the building’s reconstruction after WWII.

The auctioneer said: “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.”

Included in the auction was the metal printing plates used to make the miniature book.

Many miniature books were produced in the 16th century but the popularity of tiny books actually dates back to Mesopotamia, around 2325BC.

Although this book is one of the world’s smallest books, another holds the Guinness World Record. Teeny Ted from Turnip Town, measuring 70 micrometres by 100 micrometres, is the current record holder.