Otto H. F. Vollbehr was an expert on fifteenth-century books and medieval manuscripts; he amassed a collection of such items in a short time, only to sell them just as quickly. In the years between the world wars he was one of the most prominent rare-book and manuscript dealers in Europe and the United States; stories about his treasures appeared in the press on both sides of the Atlantic. He spoke six languages and had entrée to the homes of the wealthy and famous. His two greatest sales were to the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery and to the Library of Congress.

Vollbehr promoted an aura of mystery about himself that still enshrouds him today. One of the few sources of information about him, an account of his life in the Nation's Capital Magazine in 1931, has the effusiveness of an interview with a movie...