The Turtle Island Book Shop has issued a catalogue of Recent Acquisitions: Brazil. For anyone who collects Braziliana or Brasiliana (are those real words?), this catalogue will provide some interesting opportunities. There are 73 items, mostly in either the country's native language of Portuguese, or English (plus a German and a French), pertaining to South America's largest and most populous country. While the rest of that continent and Latin America speak Spanish, Brazil, long a Portuguese colony, remains the one exception. Here are some items you will find in the Turtle Island catalogue.
Item 12 is two items bound in one volume. The first is Dialogos Das Grandezas Do Brasil, by Ambrosio Brandao. This is a 1930 first printing of the new edition of Brandao's 1618 account of Brazil. The author's text is presented as a dialogue discussing the opportunities for merchants and colonists in the backwoods of Brazil, as well as describing the plants and animals, minerals and agriculture of this vast land. The second title is Viage, Ao Brasil, by Hans Staden. This is the first Portuguese language edition of the German's 1557 voyage to Brazil. Staden was an adventurer who signed on to a couple of Brazilian voyages in the mid-16th century. On the second one, his ship went down, and the survivors were forced to make their way to land. They set up shop in Sao Marco, but on a hunting trip, Staden was captured by Tupinamba Indians. It is never good for Europeans to be captured by natives, but even more so when those natives practice cannibalism. As a foreign invader, Staden was toast, or more specifically, dinner. However, he supposedly convinced the Indians that his Gods disapproved of their cooking him when many fell ill (probably from diseases brought by Europeans). Some question the total accuracy of Staden's account. Priced at $175.
For a more traditional history of early Brazil, there is Historia Do Brasil. As Origens 1500-1600, by Pedro Calmon. This 1939 history covers the period of early exploration and colonization of the country. Item 14. $35.
The Brazilian Historical Congress, which met from September 7-16, 1914, left a complete record of its proceedings. Item 58 is the Primeiro Congresso De Historia Nacional, published form 1915-1917. It contains five volumes. They cover everything from explorations and archeology to government, diplomatic, and military institutions. $750.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Album Containing Four Signed Photographs of Albert Einstein, With Eleven Additional Einstein Photographs, From His Journey to Japan Aboard the S.S. Kitano Maru, 1922. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Fred Freeman. Illustration of the Channel Tunnel’s British Portal (Presumably at Folkestone), ca. 1958. $5,000 to $7,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Wolfgang Kurt Hermann Panofsky Group of Awards. Pief Panofsky's 1961 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, National Medal of Science, Enrico Fermi Award, and Others. $8,000 to $12,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Seymour Cray; Cray-3. Manuscript Cray-3 Logbook, 1989-90. — The Only Significant Cray Manuscript to Come to Auction. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.
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Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.