SOTHEBY'S 2004 INCUNABULA, Science, Russian MSS catalog

SOTHEBY'S: LONDON, 25 June 2004 (Sale LO-4405).

The catalogue of Sotheby's 25 June 2004 London sale presents a superb selection of antiquarian books, especially early printed books, including numerous incunabula. 177 lots meticulously described and profusely illustrated with high quality color and black-and-white photographic reproductions, with estimates given in British pounds and Euros.

The catalogue presents a number of rare incunables (some with fine illumination) including:

• Euclid's Elementa, Venice: Ratdolt, 1482 - being the first appearance of Euclid in print!
• Balbus' Catholicon. [Strassburg: the R-printer (Adolf Rusch), c. 1470];
• Albrecht von Eyb's Ehebüchlein, Nuremberg: Koberger, 16 October 1472;
• Gerson's Alphabetum divini amoris, [Cologne: Ulrich Zel, c. 1466-1467];
• Hyginus' Poeticon astronomicon, Venice: de Blavis, 7 June 1488;
• Poliziano's Omnia opera, Venice: Aldus Manutius, July 1498;
• Albertus Magnus' Compendium theologicae veritatis, Venice: Gregorius Dalmatinus and Jacobus Britannicus, 1 April 1483 in magnificent contemporary Venetian binding of blind-tooled goatskin over wooden boards;
• etc...

Other important lots include Mikhail Lermontov's autograph working manuscript of his poem "Ne plach', ne plach', moe ditia", a lot of 120 autograph letters of Marie, the Grand Duchess of Russia to Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, her former governess and confidante, and several other important Russian documents and manuscripts; Karl Marx's autograph reading notes on banking; a sixteenth-century German alchemical manuscript; the first complete edition of Virgil's Aeneid in French, with woodcuts (Lyon: Jean de Tournes, 1560); first Aldine edition of Celsus classic on medicine; two early editions of Apianus' Cosmographia, first edition in German of Fuchs' famous Herbal with 517 hand-colored woodcuts (Basel: 1543); rare first edition of Carl Linnaeus' epoch-making Systema naturae, etc.

Includes index of names at the end.

Format:

118 pages; bound in illustrated wrappers; large quarto: 27 cm x 21 cm. Illustrated end-papers. Profusely illustrated with color and black-and-white photo-reproductions of lots described (including some full-page illustrations).

Condition:

Near Fine. Very light shelf-wear to edges of wrappers, harmless light creases to the outer corners; otherwise fine.

The winner must contact us within three days, and payment is due within 7 days after the auction's end. Please be responsible and do not bid if you are not intending to pay.

We reserve the right to cancel bids from eBayers with no feedback or a history of negative feedback.