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Auction Results

Now
The Erwin Tomash Library on the History of Computing

18 September 2018 - 19 September 2018 | 10:00 AM BST | London

SALE TOTAL

3,659,548GBP
Browse Lots
  • 198
    Galilei, Galileo (1564-1642)
    Difesa... contro alle calunnie & imposture di Baldessar Capra Milanese, usategli si nella Considerazione astronomica sopra la nuova stella del M DC IIII come (& assai piu) nel publicare nuovamente come sua invenzione la fabrica, & gli usi del Compasso geometrico, & militare, sotto il titolo di Usus & fabrica circini cuiusdam proportionis, &c. Venice: Tommaso Baglioni, 1607
    LOT SOLD.466,000GBP
  • 197
    Galilei, Galileo (1564-1642)
    Le operazioni del compasso geometrico, et militare. Padua: in the house of the author, by Pietro Marinelli, 1606
    LOT SOLD.162,500GBP
  • 62
    Bianchini, Giovanni (d.c.1470)
    Tabulae astronomiae et canones, manuscript, in Latin [Italy (Venice?), c.1460s (1474 or earlier)]
    LOT SOLD.93,750GBP
  • 442
    Mubashshir ibn Ahmad al-Razi (1135/1136-1193)
    Kitab fihi (?) Sharh ma amla’ahu al-Wazir ‘Awn al-Din Abu’l Muzaffar Yahya ibn Muhammad ibn Hubayra fi ‘ilm sina’at al-h(isab) [A commentary on arithmetic by Ibn Hubayra, copied by Abd al-Aziz ibn Dulaf ibn Abi Talib]. Baghdad or Damascus, Abbasid, dated 576 AH/1180 AD
    LOT SOLD.87,500GBP
  • 448
    Napier, John (1550-1617)
    Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio, eiusque usus, in utraque trigonometria, ut etiam in omni logistica mathematica, amplissimi, facillimi & expeditissimi explicatio. Edinburgh: Andrew Hart, 1614
    LOT SOLD.75,000GBP
  • 855
    [Lovelace, Augusta Ada, translator]--Menabrea, Luigi Federico (1809-1896)
    Sketch of the analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage, Esq… with notes by the translator... London: Richard and John E. Taylor, 1843
    LOT SOLD.75,000GBP
  • 311
    Kepler, Johannes (1571-1630)
    Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum. Linz: Johann Planck, for the author, 1615
    LOT SOLD.68,750GBP
  • 534
    Pratt, William (active 1616-1624)
    The arithmeticall jewell: or the use of a small table; whereby is speedily wrought, as well all arithmeticall works in whole numbers, as all fractionall operations, without fraction or reduction. London: Io. Beale, 1617
    LOT SOLD.60,000GBP
  • 149
    Decker, Ezechiel de (c. 1603-c. 1647)
    Tweede deel van de nieuwe tel-konst ofte wonderliicke konstighe tafel, inhoudende de logarithmi, voor de getallen van 1 af tot 100000 toe [etc.]. Gouda: Pieter Rammazeyn, 1627, [4], 36pp., without tables (see footnote), occasional cropping
    LOT SOLD.52,500GBP
  • 101
    Capra, Baldassare (1580-1626)
    Usus et fabrica circini cuiusdam proportionis, per quem omnia fere tum Euclidis, tum Mathematicorum omnium problemata facili negotio resoluuntur. Padua: Pietro Paolo Tozzi, 1607
    LOT SOLD.50,000GBP
Browse Lots
Sale Number: L18409 Lots : 942

SALE TOTAL

3,659,548GBP DOWNLOAD RESULTS

Sessions

  • Session 1: 18 Sep 2018 | 10:00 AM | Lots 1 - 252
  • Session 2: 18 Sep 2018 | 02:30 PM | Lots 253 - 493
  • Session 3: 19 Sep 2018 | 10:00 AM | Lots 494 - 705
  • Session 4: 19 Sep 2018 | 02:30 PM | Lots 706 - 944
  • Sale Tracked
  • Print My Catalogue (0)

Overview

An Elizabethan Explorer and the Mysteries of the Sea

View Print Catalogue - Part 1

View Print Catalogue - Part 2

View Conditions of Sale - Part 1

View Conditions of Sale - Part 2

In its scope and subject matter, Erwin Tomash’s collection is unlike any other to have been offered at auction. The library represents a lifetime’s fascination with the development across the ages of the modern-day computer, including calculation, astronomy, navigation, mensuration and related subjects. It ranges from medieval and renaissance works on arithmetic, finger-reckoning and the abacus, to the birth in the twentieth century of theoretical and practical computer science under Alan Turing. On the way, it encompasses major breakthroughs in the measurement of space and time by Apianus, Galileo, Kepler and others, the development of complex logarithmic, volumetric and trigonometrical calculations, and early and later scientific instruments such as sectors, slide-rules, astrolabes and quadrants, including Napier’s bones and Babbage’s famous difference engine.

The auction, taking place over two days, will be the inaugural sale in our new purpose-built gallery in the Aeolian Hall, Bloomfield Place.

An Elizabethan Explorer and the Mysteries of the Sea

Saleroom Notice

Contact Information

Charlotte Miller
Specialist for Continental Books & Manuscripts
London
+44 20 7293 5893
charlotte.miller@sothebys.com
Cecilie Gasseholm
Specialist
Travel and Atlases
+44 20 7293 5292
cecilie.gasseholm@sothebys.com
Dr David Goldthorpe
Senior Director
Head of Department
Books & Manuscripts
+44 20 7293 5303
david.goldthorpe@sothebys.com
Peter Selley
Specialist
Books & Manuscripts
+44 20 7293 5295
peter.selley@sothebys.com