Getty Sells 8th-Century Book

A 1,200-year-old church manuscript was sold by Sotheby’s auctioneers today for $1.18 million. The 8th-Century book, recording the laws agreed on by the early Church Councils, was one of eight rare manuscripts sold by the J. Paul Getty Museum of Los Angeles for a total of $4.76 million.

The manuscript, Canones Conciliorum, was bought jointly by two book dealers from New York and London. A Sotheby’s spokesman said the museum decided to sell the manuscripts--which included a 9th-Century book by the first English historian, the Venerable Bede, a world map and a 9th-Century collection of classical writing--because they were not illuminated like the rest of its collection.