Early Printed, Scientific, Medical & Travel Books at Swann's
New York—Swann Galleries’ auction of Early Printed, Scientific, Medical & Travel Books on Tuesday, May 15 offers Aldine imprints, Bibles, classics, post-medieval manuscripts and works on law, music, astronomy and Italian travel.
The sale opens with a selection of Aldine imprints, including Musaeus, Opusculum de Herone & Leandro . . . de lapidibus, containing the editio princeps of the poem attributed to Orpheus on gems and their properties, Venice, 1517 (estimate: $2,000 to $3,000) and Caius Julius Caesar, Opera, Venice, January 1518 to November 1519 ($1,500 to $2,500).
Bibles of note include a pentateuch with the signature of Massachusetts puritan minister Increase Mather, Leiden, 1610-15 ($1,000 to $2,000) and a New Testament in church Slavonic, Moscow, 1701 ($2,000 to $3,000). Among Catholic liturgy highlights is a near-miniature illuminated manuscript in Latin, Belgium, circa 1500 ($5,000 to $10,000).
Featured law books are Emperor Justinianus I’s Institutiones, with the Glossa ordinaria of Franciscus Accursius, Rome, 14 July 1475 ($4,000 to $6,000); Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie attributed to Ranulf de Glanville, the earliest extant treatise on English law, London, 1554 ($2,000 to $3,000); and a first edition of Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, Oxford, 1765-69 ($6,000 to $9,000).
Rounding out the Early Printed highlights are Gregor Reisch, Margarita philosophica, an encyclopedic compendium of natural and moral philosophy in dialogue form, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1503 ($2,000 to $3,000); Meder, Parabola filij glutonis profusi atque p[ro]digi, Paris, 1511 ($1,500 to $2,500); John Donne’s LXXX Sermons in its first collected edition, London, 1640 ($3,000 to $5,000); and Antonio da Silva Leite, Estudo de Guitarra, Porto, 1796, the first manual of the Portuguese guitar ($1,500 to $2,500).
The scientific and medical books section of the sale offers desirable works on astronomy such as Great Astronomical Discoveries lately made by Sir John Herschel, LL, D.F.R.S. &c. at the Cape of Good Hope, an account of flora and fauna on the surface of the moon, 1835 ($500 to $750) and James Nasmyth and James Carpenter, The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite, with 25 plates depicting lunar models, London, 1874 ($600 to $900). Other scientific titles include a second edition in Latin of Oppian’s Halieutica, containing writings on fish by Lorenzo Lippi and others, Strassburg, 1534 ($2,000 to $3,000) and Conrad Gesner’s Historiae animaliu Liber II and Liber III, 1585 and 1586 ($2,000 to $3,000 for the pair).
The sale concludes with more than 100 travel books, which include a run of books on Italy, among them William Thomas, The Historye of Italye, London, 1561, the first book in English devoted exclusively to Italy, it was condemned and publicly burnt after Thomas’s death ($4,000 to $6,000); Thomas de Fougasse, The Generall Historie of the Magnificent State of Venice, London, 1612 ($1,500 to $2,500); and Edward Lear, Illustrated Excursions in Italy, London, 1846 ($3,000 to $5,000).
Other travel highlights are Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Voyages from Montreal . . . to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, London, 1801, the first narrative of a North American transcontinental crossing ($3,000 to $5,000) and Sir Richard Francis Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah, London, 1855-56 ($5,000 to $7,000).
The auction will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 15. The books will be on public exhibition Friday, May 11, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, May 12, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Monday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Tuesday, May 15, from 10 a.m. to noon.
An illustrated catalogue is available for $35 from Swann Galleries, Inc., 104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010, or online at www.swanngalleries.com.
For further information, and to make advance arrangements to bid by telephone during the auction, please contact Tobias Abeloff at (212) 254-4710, extension 18, or via e-mail at tabeloff@swanngalleries.com.
Live online bidding is also available via Artfact.com.
The sale opens with a selection of Aldine imprints, including Musaeus, Opusculum de Herone & Leandro . . . de lapidibus, containing the editio princeps of the poem attributed to Orpheus on gems and their properties, Venice, 1517 (estimate: $2,000 to $3,000) and Caius Julius Caesar, Opera, Venice, January 1518 to November 1519 ($1,500 to $2,500).
Bibles of note include a pentateuch with the signature of Massachusetts puritan minister Increase Mather, Leiden, 1610-15 ($1,000 to $2,000) and a New Testament in church Slavonic, Moscow, 1701 ($2,000 to $3,000). Among Catholic liturgy highlights is a near-miniature illuminated manuscript in Latin, Belgium, circa 1500 ($5,000 to $10,000).
Featured law books are Emperor Justinianus I’s Institutiones, with the Glossa ordinaria of Franciscus Accursius, Rome, 14 July 1475 ($4,000 to $6,000); Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie attributed to Ranulf de Glanville, the earliest extant treatise on English law, London, 1554 ($2,000 to $3,000); and a first edition of Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, Oxford, 1765-69 ($6,000 to $9,000).
Rounding out the Early Printed highlights are Gregor Reisch, Margarita philosophica, an encyclopedic compendium of natural and moral philosophy in dialogue form, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1503 ($2,000 to $3,000); Meder, Parabola filij glutonis profusi atque p[ro]digi, Paris, 1511 ($1,500 to $2,500); John Donne’s LXXX Sermons in its first collected edition, London, 1640 ($3,000 to $5,000); and Antonio da Silva Leite, Estudo de Guitarra, Porto, 1796, the first manual of the Portuguese guitar ($1,500 to $2,500).
The scientific and medical books section of the sale offers desirable works on astronomy such as Great Astronomical Discoveries lately made by Sir John Herschel, LL, D.F.R.S. &c. at the Cape of Good Hope, an account of flora and fauna on the surface of the moon, 1835 ($500 to $750) and James Nasmyth and James Carpenter, The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite, with 25 plates depicting lunar models, London, 1874 ($600 to $900). Other scientific titles include a second edition in Latin of Oppian’s Halieutica, containing writings on fish by Lorenzo Lippi and others, Strassburg, 1534 ($2,000 to $3,000) and Conrad Gesner’s Historiae animaliu Liber II and Liber III, 1585 and 1586 ($2,000 to $3,000 for the pair).
The sale concludes with more than 100 travel books, which include a run of books on Italy, among them William Thomas, The Historye of Italye, London, 1561, the first book in English devoted exclusively to Italy, it was condemned and publicly burnt after Thomas’s death ($4,000 to $6,000); Thomas de Fougasse, The Generall Historie of the Magnificent State of Venice, London, 1612 ($1,500 to $2,500); and Edward Lear, Illustrated Excursions in Italy, London, 1846 ($3,000 to $5,000).
Other travel highlights are Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Voyages from Montreal . . . to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, London, 1801, the first narrative of a North American transcontinental crossing ($3,000 to $5,000) and Sir Richard Francis Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah, London, 1855-56 ($5,000 to $7,000).
The auction will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 15. The books will be on public exhibition Friday, May 11, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, May 12, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Monday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Tuesday, May 15, from 10 a.m. to noon.
An illustrated catalogue is available for $35 from Swann Galleries, Inc., 104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010, or online at www.swanngalleries.com.
For further information, and to make advance arrangements to bid by telephone during the auction, please contact Tobias Abeloff at (212) 254-4710, extension 18, or via e-mail at tabeloff@swanngalleries.com.
Live online bidding is also available via Artfact.com.
