Of notable auction sales of books, and of the extravagant prices obtained for certain editions by ambitious and eager competition, there is little room to treat. The oft-told story of the Valdarfer Boccaccio of 1471, carried off at the Roxburghe sale in 1812, at L2,260 from Earl Spencer by the Marquis of Blandford, and re-purchased seven years after at another auction for L918, has been far surpassed in modern bibliomania. "The sound of that hammer," wrote the melodramatic Dibdin, "echoed through Europe:" but what would he have said of the Mazarin Bible of Gutenberg and Fust (1450-55) sold in 1897, at the Ashburnham sale, for four thousand pounds, or of the Latin Psalter of Fust and Schoeffer, 2d ed. 1459, which brought L4,950 at the Syston Park sale in 1884? This last sum (about twenty-four thousand dollars) is the largest price ever yet recorded as received for a single volume. Among books of less rarity, though always eagerly sought, is the first folio Shakespeare of 1623, a very fine and perfect copy of which brought L716.2 at Daniel's sale in 1864. Copies warranted perfect have since been sold in London for L415 to L470. In New York, a perfect but not "tall" copy brought $4,200 in 1891 at auction. Walton's "Compleat Angler," London, 1st ed. 1653, a little book of only 250 pages, sold for L310 in 1891. It was published for one shilling and sixpence. The first edition of Robinson Crusoe brought L75 at the Crampton sale in 1896. The rage for first editions of very modern books reached what might be called high-water mark some time since, and has been on the decline. Shelley's "Queen Mab," 1st ed. 1813, was sold at London for L22.10, and his "Refutation of Deism," 1814, was sold at L33, at a London sale in 1887. In New York, many first editions of Shelley's poems brought the following enormous prices in 1897. Shelley's Adonais, 1st ed. Pisa, Italy, 1821, $335. Alastor, London, 1816, $130. The Cenci, Italy, 1819, $65. Hellas, London, 1822, $13. But these were purely adventitious prices, as was clearly shown in the sale at the same auction rooms, a year or two earlier, of the following: Shelley's Adonais, 1st ed. Pisa, 1821, $19. Alastor, London, 1816, $32. The Cenci, Italy, 1819, $21. Hellas, London, 1822, $2.