Robert Recorde's First English Astronomy Book Sold for £10,000

A scarce astronomy treatise, written by a Welshman before Galileo was born, has been sold to a private international buyer after an intense bidding war.

The first edition of The Castle of Knowledge by Robert Recorde (first edition, London: Reginalde Wolfe, 1556) was discovered among a box of antiquarian books by Hansons Auctioneers and went for £10,000 in its November 1 Library Auction. 

“It was an amazing discovery, the most important scientific text I’ve ever handled," said Jim Spencer, Head of Books at Hansons. “The vendor consigned a large box full of antiquarian books, and this one jumped out at me with its allegorical woodcut title page and charming illustrations. It felt special. I could only find one other copy sold at auction. It fetched $90,000 (£74,200) at Bonhams in 2007. The same book previously sold at Sotheby’s in 1971. Admittedly our copy was not so well-preserved, but it was just incredibly rare." 

As well as being the oldest surviving original English astronomy book, not merely a translation or abstract of Latin medieval or classical works, it is one of the first English astronomy books to mention Polish astronomer Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), and the heliocentric system. Copernicus (1473-1543) formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its centre. In addition, Recorde not only refers to ancient Greek philosopher Plato (424/428 AD-348 AD) but also to fellow Greek philosopher Proclus (412 AD-485 AD), so had access to Neoplatonic source material.

“Recorde was a brilliant Welsh academic, physician and mathematician whose name should be more widely known," said Spencer. "As well as inventing the 'equals' sign he introduced the pre-existing 'plus' and 'minus' signs to English speakers in 1557."

Recorde was born around 1512 in Tenby, Pembrokeshire. He studied at the University of Oxford in about 1525 and was elected a Fellow of All Souls College in 1531. After choosing medicine as a profession, his studies continued at the University of Cambridge in 1545. Afterwards he returned to Oxford and taught mathematics. Later he worked in London as physician to King Edward VI and Queen Mary, to whom some of his books are dedicated. He was also controller of the Royal Mint. After being sued for defamation by a political enemy, he was arrested for debt and died in the King’s Bench Prison, Southwark, in 1558.