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In 2007 a retired Canadian doctor paid €13,200 (US$14,256) for a well-used second edition of Andreas Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica (1555), one of the most influential books in history. Only 150 copies are known. The book had been in the hands of collectors for more than four centuries and had extensive latin annotations by an unknown hand.
Book collectors tend to shun books with annotations as they are often seen as desecrations of the finished work, particularly so with important works, but even more so when a book is as large, beautiful and of such immense historical gravitas as De humani corporis fabrica.
When it was published in 1543, Vesalius' illustrated work advanced anatomy 1,300 years, superseding Galen's work (circa 150 CE) as the primary reference for physicians across Europe.