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Articles - December - 2006 Issue

Livres Precieux

- by Bruce E. McKinney

A very desirable book

A very desirable book


Next there is Giovani Paolo Gallucci's "Theatrum Mundi et Temporis..." printed in Venise by Ioannes Baptista Somascus in 1588. Copies of this come up. Sothebys sold one for BP 6,000 in 2005 and Christies another copy this past June for BP 5,400. The Thomas Scheler copy is a bit more: EURO 350,000. It is also quite different. It is a large paper copy and hand colored for a Pope. It of course has an appropriately regal binding. It includes a hand colored map of the new world and so will not be out of place on the mantle or under a tree anywhere in the western hemisphere.

For those afflicted with a love of early Shakespeare there is item 28, "The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark, newly imprinted and inlarged, according to the true and perfect Copy last printed." This is the fifth quarto edition and seventh overall. Its provenance is impeccable reading as a who's who of collectors and dealers over the past 200 years: [Probably] Richard Heber, then Thomas Rodd, Duke of Devonshire, Henry Huntington, G. D. Smith, John L. Clawson, A. S. W. Rosenbach, Martin Bodmer, Bernard & Stephane Clavreuil and soon the next link in this extraordinary chain -- possibly you. The price, oh yes. The going price of guaranteed immortality is EURO 200,000.

And one more to consider: Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, the first French edition printed in Paris by Bagnerre in 1862. It is issued as 10 volumes and bound as 8, this being a large paper copy with 20 illustrations in color by Castelli and Neuville. If you still have any money left this one is EURO 70,000.

To make inquiries contact the Clavreuils at basane@thomas-schuler.fr.

All 56 items are accessible via this link for AEM readers. For AE members this material is also now included in the AED. The saying is "read 'em and weep." For this volume let's change it to "read it and celebrate."

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Rare Book Monthly

  • ALDE, Apr. 8: GUEVARA (ANTONIO DE). Histoire de Marc-Aurèle, Empereur Romain, vray miroir et horloge des Princes. Paris, Pierre et Galliot du Pré, frères, 1565. €3,000 to €4,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: HEURES DE LA VIERGE. Horæ in laudem beatissimæ virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum. Paris, Charles L'Angelier, 1556. €4,000 to €5,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: MONTAIGNE (MICHEL DE). Les Essais. Édition nouvelle, trouvée après le deceds de l'autheur… Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1595. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [ROJAS (FERNANDO DE)]. Celestina, tragicomedia di Calisto et Melibea, tradotta de lingua castigliana in italiano idioma… Venise, 1531. €2,000 to €3,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CAMÕES (LUÍS DE). Os Lusiadas. Lisbonne, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. €2,000 to €3,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Bruxelles, Roger Velpius & Huberto Antonio, 1611. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: LA FONTAINE (JEAN DE). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Paris, Denys Thierry et Claude Barbin, 1678-1694. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. €3,000 to €4,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: DIDEROT (DENIS) ET JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, 1751-1765. €15,000 to €20,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Les Laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn… Lyon, J. A. Henry, 1883. €8,000 to €10,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. Livre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon, [A. Roux], 1886. €5,000 to €6,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections
    Open for Bidding 2-17 April
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: [Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun]. Le Roman de la Rose, [Geneva or Lyons, c.1481], first printed edition of the most important medieval French vernacular poem. £200,000 to £300,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Castiglione. Il libro del cortegiano. [Venice], April 1528, first edition, in a magnificent binding by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Jacobus de Cessolis. Schachzabelbuch, Strasbourg, 1483, von der Lasa copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: World Championship, 1972. A collection of 84 press photographs of the famed match between Spassky and Fischer. £2,000 to £3,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Ben Franklin. Autograph letter signed, to Lord Shelburne, British Prime Minister, during peace negotiations, November 1782. £15,000 to £20,000.

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