Collectors from around the world are snapping up the Vatican's $8,400 limited-edition volumes of the transcripts of the heresy trials of the Knights Templar, the publisher said Thursday.

The Vatican has produced 800 leather-bound copies of the document collection.

Medieval expert Franco Cardini shows the 300-page volume 'Processus Contra Templarios,' Latin for 'Trial against the Templars.'
(Plinio Lepri/Associated Press)

Scrinium publishing house, which prints documents from the Vatican's Secret Archives, said sheiks, libraries, individual collectors and cultural organizations have all reserved copies. About 300 volumes remain, said Scrinium president Ferdinando Santor.

Santor wouldn't identify any buyers, only to say they included some "internationally famous" people.

The Vatican work reproduces the entire documentation of the papal hearings convened after King Philip IV of France arrested and tortured Templar leaders in 1307 on charges of heresy and immorality.

It includes the "parchment of Chinon," a 1308 document that includes proof Pope Clement V absolved the templars of heresy. Under pressure from King Philip, however, Clement reversed his decision and suppressed the order.

The document's significance was unknown because of a vague catalogue entry made in 1628. A Vatican researcher recognized the importance of the document in 2001.

The military order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was founded in 1118 in Jerusalem to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land after the First Crusade.

As their might, wealth and influence increased, European rulers became increasingly wary of the secretive order. Allegations of corruption and blasphemy followed.

Historians believe King Philip racked up debts to the order after his wars with England and used the accusations to arrest its leaders and extract, under torture, confessions of heresy as a way to seize the order's riches.

The Templars' grand master, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake in 1314 as surviving monks fled.

"The Knights Templar, of course, exercise sort of mythical function in history," said Knights Templar expert Michael Walsh. "People build stories around them."

The order has made headlines in recent years because of the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, which linked the Templars to the story of the Holy Grail. A Hollywood film starring Tom Hanks was based on the Dan Brown book.

With files from the Associated Press