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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/Tokyono on 2025-09-24 12:06:26+00:00.
Note: Several of these sources are in French and I have no skill for languages, so I used google translate to translate them. Apologies for any errors.
Chapter One - A Novel Idea
In medieval times, most books were written by hand, by monks in monasteries, in halls called Scriptoriums. By the 12th century, the process had become commercialised and most book writing was done by guilds and workshops. Then Johannes Gutenberg invented the mechanical printing press in the mid-15th century, and nothing was ever the same again.
The books that were printed on the earliest printing presses are known as Incunabula:
Incunabula are books, pamphlets, and broadsides that were printed in Europe before the year 1501. Incunabula represent the earliest age of printing, and they printed in two distinct ways. Incunabula were printed either by block book printing style or by typographic book printing. The block book printed incunabula were carved or sculpted into single wooden “pages”, and the typographic book printed incunabula were made with pieces of cast metal movable type used on a printing press. The Gutenberg Bible of 1455 and the Nuremberg Chronicle are both examples of incunabula, and both are highly valuable pieces of literature.
Because of their origins, Incunabula are valuable. Very valuable. Many of them sell for thousands of dollars, and the most valuable ones can go for hundreds of thousands, and even millions- in 1987 an original Gutenberg bible sold for 4.9 million.
By the end of the 16th century, hundreds of millions of books had been printed, due to the printing press having spread to towns and cities all across Europe. Most of these books are not worth as much as Incunabula. However some of them, such as the first editions of works by scientists such as Copernicus, are just as valuable, or even more valuable, than many Incunabula.
Nowadays, these early books are prime targets for enterprising thieves. Most of these thieves either worked at libraries or institutions with rare book collections or were antiquarian book dealers. Opportunistic thieves- who are unconnected to the world of rare books - are far rarer.
Chapter Two – He Booked It
Mont Saint-Odile is a 7th century picturesque monastery nestled in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace, in Northern France. By the 21st century, it had become a tourist destination, with a hotel and restaurant. Oh, it also has a large library, full of old books. Some of them are very valuable:
In the 1990s, an amateur historian started drawing an inventory and had found ancient editions of works by Aristotle, Homer, and the Roman playwright Terence. Especially valuable were 10 incunabula — rare books printed before 1501, during the earliest years of the printing press. Sermons by Augustine, bound in sow skin, from 1489. Three Latin Bibles, printed in Basel and Strasbourg. Works by the Roman poet Virgil, printed in 1492 in Nuremberg. A Bible commentary by Peter Lombard, a 12th-century Italian scholar.
In August 2000, books started to go missing. The door to the library was often left unlocked. The thief had just strolled right in and taken several books off the shelf, including one of the library’s priceless Incunabula.
The monastery staff filed a police complaint, but the theft was dismissed as one-time incident. Then suddenly, in November, the rest of the Incunabula disappeared. This time the authorities sprang into action:
The gendarmes began an investigation and soon roamed the area. License plate numbers were noted; tourists spending a night in one of the guesthouse’s 110 rooms, scrutinized; personnel, screened. “It was like looking for a needle in a haystack,” says Jean-Pierre Schackis, the main investigator on the case, 51 at the time. More than one million people visit Mont Sainte-Odile every year, and the surveillance cameras at the site entrance didn’t even work properly.
The locks on the library door were changed, and signs were put up.
The thefts stopped…for a while.
In April 2002, a housekeeper, Véronique Buntz, noticed that many of the shelves were suddenly empty. Hundreds of books had gone missing. There were no signs of forced entry. Everyone was flummoxed, especially the new librarian, Alain Donius.
“It was particularly disturbing,” says Donius.
“The atmosphere was tense,” recalls Gabriel Dietrich, a janitor, now retired, 52 at the time.
“It was surreal,” remembers Buntz. “One thinks: It’s impossible! How can books disappear when the windows aren’t broken, when there’s no sign of break-in?
Fr Alain was in despair as gaps widened on the shelves in the vaulted stone chamber. The thief appeared to be particularly keen on removing 15th century treasures that pre-dated the invention of the printing press.
“There was no sign of a break-in, yet our library was gradually being emptied,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘One day I’ll come in and there’ll be nothing left’.”
The locks were changed twice more, but books kept disappearing. Suspicion enveloped the monastery. At the time, it had 50 employees- including three priests and four nuns. Everyone had to sign a form stating they were not responsible for the thefts. Véronique even gave up her own key to the library to prove she was not the thief.
Donius became afraid to enter the Library:
“I didn’t dare to go back to the library anymore,” says Alain Donius. Since no one knows how “he” comes in or “he” goes out, who can say that “he” is not there at this moment?
How was the thief getting in and out of the room? He must be some sort of extraordinarily gifted escape artist, or a literal magician, able to materialise through walls and pilfer books in the dead of night.
Chapter Three – Lit-terally the Worst Thing Ever
After several successful thefts, the thief left Donius a taunting message: a single rose on the steps of the Library. The police suspected they might be stealing the books to sell them, so they checked all the auction houses and antique bookshops in France and Germany but found nothing.
In the end they realised that there was only one way that the thief was entering and existing the library:
“It was really a perfect mystery,” Ms Simoncello (public prosecutor in the nearby town of Saverne) said. “The convent had the locks changed once, then a second and a third time, and the windows sealed. The thefts stopped for a while, then started again this Easter. That’s when we started thinking seriously about the possibility of another entrance.”
In May, after three devastating thefts in a row, the police changed tactics. They searched the library from top to bottom and found something:
Only when a a local gendarme put his weight against the wall behind a bookcase did a section swing smoothly back to reveal a small room in which a rope ladder gave access to the roof space above.
From there, a narrow corridor led to a workshop in another wing of the monastery that had been turned into a hotel for tourists and pilgrims. “The library was once the chapter room of the nuns in the convent here,” said Fr Alain, tapping on the wall beside the …
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