Iberian and Latin American Works from Paul Orssich
- by Michael Stillman
Paul Orssich's 72nd catalogue.
Paul Orssich has released Catalogo 72. Orssich is the London bookseller who specializes in Iberian material, along with works pertaining to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the New World. While the material pertains to Spain and Portugal, much of it is written in English, and some in French, as well as the Iberian languages. The catalogue itself is primarily in Spanish. While Portugal, being much smaller than Spain, and having but one American colony (Brazil), often seems like an afterthought in Iberian and South American catalogues, we find a good selection of books pertaining to this nation that was once a major force in global exploration. Here are a few examples of material to be found.
Item 120 is an interesting, contemporary look at the Caliphate of Cordoba. It was, naturally, printed much later as the Caliphate existed five centuries before printing. The title is Historia de los Jueces de Cordoba por Aljoxani. Author El Joxani writes about leading figures and social life in Cordoba during the 10th century. This period was the height of Moorish Spain. The Moors had gained control of the area during the 8th century, but the pinnacle of their rule came during the period of the Caliphate, beginning in 929 when the Emir of Cordoba, Abd-ar-Rahman III, declared himself Caliph (a caliph is a descendant of Muhammad, thus a more prestigious title). At this point the Muslim Moors from North Africa controlled all but the farthest northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, still ruled by scattered Christian tribes. It was a period of prosperity and power for the government in Cordoba. However, after the death of the second Caliph in 976, the Caliphate began a process of disintegration, with it coming to an end in 1031. This would be followed by a slow retreat by the Moors until they were finally pushed out of Iberia entirely by Ferdinand and Isabella in the late 15th century. This account is limited to the Caliphate's best of times, as its author died in 971 while it was at its peak. Offered is the first Spanish translation of El Joxani's Arabic account published in 1914. Priced at £280 (British pounds, which translates to roughly $450 U.S. dollars).
Item 2 is an English tourist's look at Europe from the 19th century: From the Pyrenees to the Channel in a Dogcart. Actually, the author, Mrs. C.E. Acland-Troyte, was not mushing her huskies through Europe. A horse pulled her dogcart. The book was published in 1887, so she could not have driven an automobile, and Mrs. Acland-Troyte wished to visit some out-of-the-way places not accessible by rail. According to a contemporary review in the Athenaeum, Mrs. Acland-Troyte "writes pleasantly," and "enjoyed her drive immensely," though it cautions that the book is "a great deal too lengthy," and contains "some pieces of distinct padding." Think of it as getting more for your money. £120 ($194).
Item 83 is one of the most thorough studies of the Portuguese people you will ever find: Etnografia Portuguesa. This detailed study was published in five volumes from 1933-1967, making it difficult to find complete sets. Author Jose Leite de Vasconcellos believed that a people could best be understood by knowing their past. He thereby set about learning everything possible about Portugal's cultural history. As the size of this work attests, he learned a lot. £250 (US $404).
Item 76 is an account of the formation of Portugal's only colony in America - Brazil. While Portugal had but one colony, it should be noted that Brazil far outsizes any other country in South America. Even before the land was first claimed by Portugal, the Pope had set a demarcation line - Spain got everything to the west, Portugal to the east. As it turned out, only Brazil lay to the east, while many more lands were west. However, the Portuguese would succeed in expanding their territory by taking colonies from France and Britain, who ignored the Pope's assignment of territories in the New World. Portugal first claimed Brazil at the start of the 16th century, and remained in control until after the Napoleonic wars. The Portuguese monarchy set up shop in Brazil when forced to flee their homeland ahead of Napoleon's invaders. However, when the monarch returned after Napoleon was defeated, the Brazilian people grew restless of Portuguese control and by the 1820s, the colonial era was over. Item 76 is Historia da Colinizacao Portuguesa do Brasil, published in three volumes from 1921-1926. £180 ($291).
Paul Orssich can be reached at 020 7787 0030 (International 44 + 20 7787 0030) or paulo@orssich.com. Their website is www.orssich.com.
Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 10: Nancy Cunard, Negro Anthology, with a tipped-in A.L.S. to Karl Marx's niece, 1934. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 14: Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845. First edition. $4,000 to $6,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 17: Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, inscribed first edition, 1959. $2,000 to $3,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 28: Margaret Hill Morris, Private Journal Kept during a Portion of the Revolutionary War, for the Amusement of a Sister, 1836. First edition. $3,000 to $4,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 38: Anna Sewell, Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, 1877. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 43: Gertrude Stein, Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia, signed presentation copy with photograph of Stein, 1912. First edition. $8,000 to $12,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 48: Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, first edition in the scarce dust jacket, 1927. $6,000 to $8,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 54: Katherine Dunham, large archive of material from her attorney, 1951-53. $20,000 to $30,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 55: Margaret Fuller Signed Autograph Letter, New York City, 1846. $3,000 to $5,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 92: Sonia Delaunay, illus. & Tristan Tzara, Juste Present, deluxe edition with original gouache, 1961. $20,000 to $25,000.
Swann, May 15: Lot 93: Flor Garduño, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, 2006. Limited edition. $6,000 to $8,000.
Ketterer Rare Books Auction May 26th
Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
Ketterer, May 26:Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
Ketterer Rare Books Auction May 26th
Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
Ketterer, May 26:PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
Ketterer Rare Books Auction May 26th
Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
Ketterer Rare Books Auction May 26th
Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.