Valuable Books and Manuscripts

Christie’s Valuable Books and Manuscripts auction on 13 July is its most valuable ever various owner sale, led by three extraordinary books: the Longleat copy of a 1499 Bible historiée on vellum, the first complete printed Bible in French (£600,000-£900,0000); a deluxe copy of Thomas Aquinas’s Summa, a foundation work of philosophy, theology and economics (£400,000-£600,000); and a presentation copy of Newton’s Opticks, which revolutionised human understanding of light and colour (£400,000-£600,000). Important science is at the heart of the sale, with a private collection including a 15^th-century manuscript of Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci, which introduced the Hindu-Arabic numbering system to the West (£300,000-£500,000), and first editions of Newton’s Principia (£350,000-500,000) and Darwin’s Origin of Species (£100,000-£150,000). Elsewhere, literary classics span Don Quixote, in an important copy with a French royal provenance (£300,000-400,000) and Harry Potter, with a set of signed first editions (£100,000-£150,000), while natural history and cartography include Besler’s ravishing Hortus Eystettensis (£250,000-£350,000) and the earliest pair of table globes on the market (£300,000-500,000). There are 50 medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, covering humanist texts, Books of Hours and alchemical treatises, led by a Parisian Bible once owned by John, Lord Lumley and William Cecil, chief advisor of Elizabeth I (£80,000-£120,000); and autographs include a unique glimpse into Isaac Newton’s childhood (£60,000-£90,000), a sketchleaf from Mahler’s 9^th Symphony, manuscripts and relics from the heroic age of Antarctic Exploration and a charming group of drawings by Quentin Blake.