南宋古詩選集在神田舊書店賣４億円以上

Last month the Yomiuri News on-line reported the following:

神田の古書店に４億円超の品…南宋期の漢詩選集

　東京都千代田区神田神保町の古書店「一誠堂書店」が１１日、古典籍の展示即売会で、中国の南宋時代の１２世紀頃に刊行された漢詩選集「唐人絶句」を４億６０００万円で売り出した。

　中国では早くから木版の印刷技術が発達し、当時出版された書籍は「宋版」と呼ばれ、書体や造本の美しさ、現存例の希少さからすでに明代から高額で取引されてきた。しかも２１冊がまとまっていることから、極めて貴重という。

　同店の目録などによると、南宋の文人、洪邁が編んだ。大きさは縦２８・２センチ、横１９・３センチ。唐代の詩人、杜甫が李白に贈った漢詩などが印刷されている。元は２２冊あり、室町時代までに日本に伝わったものとみられる。近年は少なくとも４０年以上、店に保管されていた。

（2013年10月11日19時08分 読売新聞）

(試譯文)

   In an antiquarian book exhibition fair held on the 11^th (October), the antiquarian bookshop " I Seido Bookstore" in Kanda Jimbo-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo put on sale for 460 million yen a Chinese Poetry anthology "The Chinese Quatrain" which was published at around the 12th century, being the Southern Song Dynasty in China.

   In China, printing techniques of wood engraving developed early, and the books published in those days were called the "Sung version". Because of the beauty in the handwriting style and in bookmaking, and that existing examples were rare, already from the Ming Dynasty it had been traded expensively in large amount of sum. As a collection of 21 volumes, it was even more precious.

   According to the list of the said store etc., it was Hong Mai a literary man of the Southern Song who collated it. The sizes were 28.2 cm long and 19.3 cm wide. The Chinese poetry etc. which Du Fu, the poet of the Tang dynasty, presented to Li Po were also collected in this set-volume. Originally the set had 22 volumes, and was regarded as having got across to Japan during the Muromachi period. In recent years it was kept in the store for at least 40 years.

It is a rare collection.  Yet 460 million yen is a lot of money.