Historic Columbus Letter Sells for $1.6m at Auction

The Christie’s Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts auction including Americana totalled $5,410,327 with a copy of the earliest obtainable illustrated edition of Christopher Columbus’s 1493 letter announcing his discoveries to the King and Queen of Spain (De Insulis in Mari Indico nuper inventis, Basel, Johann Bergman de Olpe, 1494) going for $1,651,000. 

There are nine known surviving 15th century editions of this letter. The first Latin edition was printed at Rome in 1493 and the Basel printer became the first to include illustrations of the New World. The first Basel edition of 1493 survives in 5 copies only, all in institutions. Only three other copies of the second Basel edition - the one sold at Christie's - have been offered at auction in more than 60 years. 

The woodcuts are the earliest printed depictions of the Americas. The highly stylized map shows outlines of Hispaniola and four islands in the Bahamas of which only Ysabella is shown definitely as an island. The woodcuts include Columbus and another European in a boat landing on the shore peopled by Natives, and a port town and fort under construction on Hispania.

Other highlights from the auction included:

• a first edition of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, sold fo $190,500
• a first edition of Austen's Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in original boards ($76,200)
• Aristotle’s De animalibus translated from Greek into Latin by Theodorus Gaza (c.1400–1475) ($276,400, nearly four times its low estimate of $70,000)
• Cato’s Distichs translated and printed by William Caxton ($190,500, almost four times its low estimate of $50,000)