Johannes Kepler’s Mysterium cosmographicum Sold for World Record for $327,600
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The Astronomia nova
Leading the auction results at Christie’s' latest Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts sale was Johannes Kepler’s Astronomia nova which went for $327,600.
It was among various scientific works from the Owen Gingerich Astronomical Library. Other items from the Gingerich library included Kepler’s Mysterium cosmographicum which set a new world record at $277,200, the Stellarum Fixarum Catologus Britannicus of John Flamsteed ($176,400), and Nicolaus Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium coelestium which made $163,800. From the section of the auction featuring Incunabula from the Collection of Eugene S. Flamm, Pliny the Elder’s Historia naturalis, in Italian, sold for $201,600.
Other highlights included the 1922 Annette Campbell-White copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses, signed by Joyce ($138,600) and Marlon Brando’s annotated partial script for The Godfather ($30,240).
Interestingly, just under a quarter of bidders and buyers at the auction were new to book sales at Christie’s.