Top 9 Most Expensive Books Of 2006

By William Shakespeare, printed in London in 162Price: $5.1 million The ***

By Ptolemy, printed in Bologna in 147Price: $4 million The first printed atlas, based on the work of the second-century mathematician and geographer. Only two copies are in private hands. ***

By Gerard Mercator, printed in Duisburg in 159Price: $781,000 The great cartographer gave us the Mercator projection, the technique still used today to convert the curved surface of the earth into a flat map. ***

By Feodor Grigoriev Solntsev and F. Dreger, published in Moscow in 184Price: $748,000 Russia's billionaire oligarchs are starting to buy books, and auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's both held Russian book auctions in 200This rare seven-volume ***

By John Calvin, published in Bale in 153Price: $720,000 A rare first edition of the most important book in Protestant theology. ***

Edited by William Bland, published in Sydney between 1825 and 183Price: $689,000 A work of Australian exploration comparable to Lewis and Clark's ***

By Arthur Rimbaud, published in Brussels in 187Price: $644,000 A landmark of French poetry inscribed by Rimbaud to his lover and literary mentor Paul Verlaine. One of only three known signed copies. ***

By Ptolemy, published in Rome in 150Price: $636,000 Though most of the maps in this book are based on the work of second-century geographer Ptolemy, it is the first atlas to also include discoveries in the New World. ***

By Ptolemy, published in Ulm in 148Price: $553,520 The second 15th-century edition of Ptolemy's ***