Read The 39 Clues [Cahills vs. Vespers] 05 - Trust No One for Free Online Page B

veined with trans-lucent streaks.
    “It’s so smart!” he said. “See how the marble has those streaks in it? Only a little light can get through — direct light is really bad for old books, it fades them. They’re protected from the sun, but you can see them through the glass.”
    Amy was right there with him. “And they’re so beautiful,” she said.
    Row upon row of books, most of them bound in leather, reached to the ceiling several stories over their heads, illuminated by the faint glow of autumn sunlight through the marble. It was truly striking.
    Amy and Atticus paired up for a gushing session as they walked around the mezzanine.
    “The brochure says this exhibit is about how a book gets made. That could be interesting. It’s
D’Aulaires’
Greek Myths —
”
    “I LOVE that book! Look, they’ve got the original drafts —”
    “And the preliminary sketches for the artwork! It’s showing every step of how the book was made — how cool is that?”
    “Not
that
cool,” Dan muttered. He and Jake trailed behind, keeping the book-geekery at a safe distance.
    Amy gasped. “Atticus, do you see what I see?” She pointed at a display case in one corner of the mezzanine.
    In the dim light, Atticus could not make out any details, but he could see that the book in the case was positively enormous.
    “Audubon?” he whispered, barely daring to hope.
    “It’s gotta be,” she said, and they raced over.
    It was indeed John James Audubon’s
Birds of America
,
first published in the 1840s. The gigantic book was
open to the page for the chickadee, although the caption called it the “Black-Capt Titmouse.”
    “The original double-elephant folio edition,” Atticus said reverently.
    “I never thought I’d see one in real life!” Amy said. “Look at the detail — it’s absolutely exquisite!”
    “I don’t see any elephants,” Dan complained, “just birds.”
    Atticus looked at him with pity. “It’s the size,” he explained. “Elephant folio is big, and after that is ‘atlas’ — you’ve probably seen some huge atlases — and then double-elephant, which is the biggest there is.”
    He furrowed his brow. “I can’t think of another book this size, can you?” he asked Amy, who shook her head.
    “Whales are bigger than elephants,” Jake said. “Why didn’t they call it the blue-whale folio?”
    “Good one,” Dan said and held out his fist toward Jake, who bumped it obligingly.
    Amy rolled her eyes at Atticus. “Just ignore them,” she said.
    It was a wise strategy, because their geekery reached even greater heights at the next case.
    “Oh. My. God.” Amy put one hand over her heart and clutched Atticus’s arm with the other.
    “A Gutenberg Bible,” Atticus said, and clutched her back for all he was worth.
    On the other side of the case, Dan and Jake shook their heads at the same time.
    “I’ll bite,” Dan said with a sigh. “I’ve heard of it, but what’s so special about it?”
    “There’s something like forty-seven or forty-eight copies left in the whole world,” Atticus said. “This book right here? It’s worth
millions.
”
    “Wow, really?” Jake said. “Okay, I’m impressed.”
    “The Chinese were the first in the world to produce books using movable type and printing presses,” Amy said, “but the Gutenberg Bible was the first book made that way in the Western world.”
    “And then the demand for glasses — I mean, eyeglasses, not drinking glasses” — the words tumbled out of Atticus, he was so excited — “it exploded! Before, books had to be written out by hand, so they were really expensive, so hardly anyone could afford them. After the printing press, there were tons more books around, so a lot more people wanted to read them, and it made them realize that they couldn’t see clearly and that they needed glasses!”
    Amy seemed entranced, and even Dan and Jake were smiling. Atticus beamed back at them. Not for the first time, he felt grateful for