NEW YORK, NY.- On Tuesday, October 21,
Swann Galleries will offer a diverse selection of Early Printed, Medical & Scientific Books in a wide range of fields, including theology, Enlightenment literature, travel, astronomy, the occult and psychiatry.
The lot with the highest pre-sale estimate is a single leaf from a paper copy of the 42-line Bible in Latin, aka the Gutenberg Bible, Mainz, circa 1450-55, with text from Acts and two manuscript initials (estimate: $40,000 to $50,000). The last time Swann offered a Gutenberg Bible leaf it sold for $55,200 in April 2013.
Additional religion highlights include Catholic liturgical works, such as Missale Leodie[n]sis ecclesie, Speyer, 1502, an early missal for the use of Liège, with text and music printed in red and black throughout ($15,000 to $25,000) and a scarce small-format Book of Hours, Hore beate marie virginis secu[n]dum usum Romanum, with 15 half-page miniatures in colors and gold, Paris, 1529-45 ($3,000 to $4,000); as well as Ordnung in Eesachen, Tübingen, circa 1535, the first printed Protestant marriage code ($1,500 to $2,500) and György Enyedi, Explicationes locorum Veteris & Novi Testamenti, ex quibus Trinitatis dogma stabiliri solet, Kolozsvár, 1598, an important early Unitarian work refuting the scriptural basis for the dogma of the Holy Trinity ($800 to $1,200).
Noteworthy medical titles are Michael Servetus, Syruporum universa ratio, Paris, 1537, a treatise on the Galenic theory of digestion and curative use of syrups ($2,000 to $3,000); an unusually well-preserved copy of Joseph Hurlock, A Practical Treatise upon Dentition; or, The Breeding of Teeth in Children, London, 1742, the first English-language book on children's teeth ($2,000 to $3,000); Samuel Hahnemann, Organon der rationellen Heilkunde, Dresden, 1810, the fundamental text of homeopathic medicine ($6,000 to $9,000); and a Bremer Press edition of Andreas Vesalius, Icones Anatomicae, Munich, 1935 ($4,000 to $6,000).
Books on astronomy include Johann Schöner, De judiciis nativitatum libri tres, Nuremberg, 1545, noteworthy for containing an early favorable reference to Copernicus’s De revolutionibus ($6,000 to $9,000); a first edition in Latin of Galileo Galilei, Systema cosmicum, his 1632 dialogue proving the validity of the Copernican heliocentric theory, bound with a second edition of Galileo’s Tractatus de proportionum instrumento, a 1612 treatise on the sector or proportional compass and its use as a calculating instrument, both Strassburg, 1635 ($15,000 to $20,000).
Among scientific books on other subjects are a second Aldine edition of a collection of Neoplatonic writings, Iamblichus, et al. De mysteriis Aegyptiorum, Chaldaeorum, Assyriorum, and other texts, Venice, November 1516 ($4,000 to $6,000); Giovanni Branca, Le Machine, Rome, 1629, containing the first published representation of an action-powered steam turbine ($5,000 to $7,000); Niccolò Cabeo, S.J., Philosophia magnetica, 1629, an important treatise on magnetism containing the first recognition of electrical repulsion ($3,000 to $4,000); and Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica . . . Editio tertia aucta & emendata, London, 1726, the last edition to appear in the author’s lifetime and the basis of all subsequent editions ($8,000 to $12,000).
The auction will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21. The books will be on public exhibition Friday, October 17, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, October 18, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.; Monday, October 20, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Tuesday, October 21, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
