Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - May - 2012 Issue

Science, Americana, Literature and More from B & L Rootenberg

From the New York Fair.

From the New York Fair.

B & L Rootenberg Fine & Rare Books recently prepared A Selection of Books Exhibited at the International Antiquarian Book Fair New York. Their catalogue is divided into four sections, (1) Science, Medicine, Natural History, Travel; (2) Americana; (3) Literature; (4) Incunabula, Bible & Theology. The greatest concentration is in the first category, science and medicine in particular. The books are most suitable for an antiquarian fair, as with a very few exceptions, they are old, 19th century and earlier, sometimes much earlier. Among the books offered are some of the greatest works ever published, particularly in the sciences. These are a few of them.

Here is a book that turned the Earth around, quite literally: De revolutionibus orbium... by Copernicus. This is the book that made the startling revelation that the Earth revolved around the sun, not the other way around. It confounded the common sense of observing the sun rise and fall each day, and contradicted established religious dogma. Somehow, Copernicus managed to get away with it all, although his successor would not. Offered is the second edition from 1566. Item 20. Priced at $150,000.

Item 50 comes from Copernicus' defender, the Italian astronomer Galileo. This is a 1632 first edition of his Dialogo... This book is presented as a dialogue between a defender of Copernicus' heliocentric system and the traditional Earth as center of the universe model. However, from the “discussion” it is obvious that Galileo believed in Copernicus' sun centered system. These views were not appreciated by the Church, which condemned Galileo and put him under house arrest for the remainder of his life. $100,000.

While Copernicus and Galileo accurately described what was going on, it was up to Isaac Newton to explain why. Newton developed his theories of motion and gravity which explained why the universe behaves as it does. He explained it all in his Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica. Offered is a first edition, published in 1687. Item 88. $195,000.

Newton had his detractors. Item 87 is R.J. Morrison's The new principia; or, true system of astronomy, published in 1868 (second edition). Morrison had a different idea of truth than most of us. In his treatise, Morrison “disproves” Newton's theories, and establishes that the sun is only 365,006.5 miles from the Earth. This could explain global warming. $500.

Item 2 offers a cure for an age-old condition, as offered by an anonymous “Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.” The title of this 1883 book is, Kallos. A treatise on the scientific culture of personal beauty and the cure of ugliness. Rootenberg describes this as a “charming work on the causes and treatments of ugliness.” The author claims that businesses can benefit from having attractive employees, or as the bookseller points out, this is “probably not a politically correct book for today.” $400.

Talk about a day that will live in infamy... Item 132 is one of the first (if not the first) announcement of the United States Tax Law of 1862. This was the law that created the Internal Revenue Service and imposed the first income tax. Yes, you can blame Abraham Lincoln. This law was passed out of necessity. The government was running up large debts to pay for the Civil War and needed another source of revenue. The act created an income tax, which remained in place until it expired ten years later. An attempt to reimpose one in 1894 was struck down by the Supreme Court, leading to the 16th amendment, which legalized a permanent income tax in 1913. $2,000.

If there is just one book of poetry you would like to own, this is probably it. Item 137 is a first edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (1855). It is generally considered the quintessential collection of American poetry, a paean to America and democracy. It is also noted for being quite rare. $95,000.

B & L Rootenberg Rare Books may be reached at 818-788-7765 or blroot@rootenbergbooks.com. Their wesbite is www.rootenbergbooks.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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€
  • 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.
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    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

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