
Please note that the results listed on this page are inclusive of any Sotheby's Premiums and exclusive of any applicable taxes and costs, unless otherwise noted.
Please note that the results listed on this page are inclusive of any Sotheby's Premiums and exclusive of any applicable taxes and costs, unless otherwise noted.
Books, Manuscripts & Music
27 November - 11 December 2025 • London

1. Eleazar Albin | A Natural History of Birds, 1738-40, 3 volumes

2. Aristotle | Politiques, 1598, tree calf

3. Roger Ascham | The Schoolemaster, 1589, nineteenth-century armorial morocco, the Berland copy

4. Juliana Berners | The Gentlemans Academie, 1595, early modern female authorship

5. Bible, Latin | A bifolium from the Gutenberg Bible
![Biblia Latina | 2 fragments from the Fust and Schöffer 48-line Bible [Mainz: Johann Fust & Peter Schöffer , 14 August 1462]](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7551d75/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3385x6973+0+0/resize/150x309!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2F87%2F2b%2F53c60dbf4de381ad325e3affdf52%2Fl25401-dgn4l-t3-01.jpg)
6. Biblia Latina | 2 fragments from the Fust and Schöffer 48-line Bible [Mainz: Johann Fust & Peter Schöffer , 14 August 1462]

7. Blaeu | Novus atlas sinensis, Amsterdam, 1655
![Boccaccio | The tragedies, [ca. 1554- 1555], nineteenth-century armorial red morocco gilt for John W. de Kay](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7335fbb/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x2000+0+0/resize/150x150!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2Fwebnative%2Fimages%2F1d%2F78%2F104a45064314b8d5deb4cd5e70d7%2Fl25401-dfyxs-t2-01.jpg)
8. Boccaccio | The tragedies, [ca. 1554- 1555], nineteenth-century armorial red morocco gilt for John W. de Kay

9. William Bonde | The Pilgrimage of Perfection, 1526, the summa of late medieval teachings on the religious life

10. Book of Common Prayer | The Forme and maner of makyng, and consecratyng Bishoppes, Priestes, and Deacons. London: Richard Grafton, August 1552
![Sebastian Brant [Alexander Barclay, translator] | Stultifera navis, 1570, early modern female book ownership](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/96c8e78/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1411+0+0/resize/150x106!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2Fwebnative%2Fimages%2Fca%2Fd7%2F752f5c1e4203b5e29281b63758ac%2Fl25401-dfyyj-t2-03.jpg)
11. Sebastian Brant [Alexander Barclay, translator] | Stultifera navis, 1570, early modern female book ownership

12. Antonio da Brescia | Savonarola, and other works, 1485-1503, later half calf
![Gaius Julius Caesar | The eyght books… conteyning his martiall exploytes… translated… by Arthur Goldinge]. (London: William Seres, [1565]), the rare first complete edition in English](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a44223d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1173x2000+0+0/resize/150x256!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2Fwebnative%2Fimages%2F49%2Fbd%2F5b5cc1b6484196523d7be0cfb273%2Fl25401-dfyxc-t2-02.jpg)
13. Gaius Julius Caesar | The eyght books… conteyning his martiall exploytes… translated… by Arthur Goldinge]. (London: William Seres, [1565]), the rare first complete edition in English
![Girolamo Cardano [Thomas Bedingfield, translator] | Cardanus comforte, 1576, rare second edition of the book held by Hamlet during his famous soliloquy](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/71eeba9/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1452x2000+0+0/resize/150x207!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2Fwebnative%2Fimages%2F88%2F49%2F4bd1f319498880972f5892b44aba%2Fl25401-dfyxl-t2-01.jpg)
14. Girolamo Cardano [Thomas Bedingfield, translator] | Cardanus comforte, 1576, rare second edition of the book held by Hamlet during his famous soliloquy

15. Chaucer | The Woorkes, 1561, the edition likely used as Shakespeare's source text for Troilus and Cressida

16. Chaucer | The Workes, 1598, first Speght edition
![Chronicles of England | [Here begynneth a shorte and a breue table on these cronycles], [ca. 1510], containing perhaps the first printed view of London](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/bbfedf8/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5457x3736+0+0/resize/150x103!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2F30%2F6c%2F2cab4c2a48cb8e22b3e6aefa1ec0%2Fl25401-dfys4-t2-02.jpg)
17. Chronicles of England | [Here begynneth a shorte and a breue table on these cronycles], [ca. 1510], containing perhaps the first printed view of London
![[Chronicles of England], Wynken de Worde, 1497](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/61e1946/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1971x2000+0+0/resize/150x152!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2Fwebnative%2Fimages%2Fce%2F2e%2F848078da4ddfb75c8d6d336ccf39%2Fl25401-dfyx4-t2-02.jpg)
18. [Chronicles of England], Wynken de Worde, 1497

19. John Dee | Document signed (“Joannes Dee Gardianus”) as Warden of Christ's College, Manchester, 1597

20. Doppelmayr | Novus atlas coelestis, Nuremberg, 1742
![Thomas Elyot | The castell of helth corrected and in some places augmented, [?1550]](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f5d83a6/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1309x2000+0+0/resize/150x229!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2Fwebnative%2Fimages%2Ff7%2F62%2Fb19348d24b1b9727e51b58bc238c%2Fl25401-dfyxd-t2-01.jpg)
21. Thomas Elyot | The castell of helth corrected and in some places augmented, [?1550]

22. Erasmus | Apophthegmes, 1542, first edition in English
Property of a Gentleman
![[Bible in English] | The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the newe testamente, 1548](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/1adac50/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1395x2000+0+0/resize/150x215!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2Fwebnative%2Fimages%2Faa%2F0f%2Fdf8f15c6490c95144560c0224cef%2Fl25401-dfyx7-t2-02.jpg)
23. [Bible in English] | The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the newe testamente, 1548
Property of a Gentleman

24. Abraham Flemming | A Panoplie of Epistles, 1576

25. Jean Froissart | Cronycles, 1542 and ca 1535

26. John Gower | De Confessione Amantis, 1532, the Berland copy

27. John Gower | De Confessione Amantis, 1554, the Berland copy

28. John Heywood | The Spider and the Flie, 1556, the Berland copy, in an attractive nineteenth-century morocco gilt binding

29. Ranulph Higden | Polycronicon, 1495, second edition of the first book in England to contain printed music
![Plants and gardening—Hill | The Profitable Arte of Gardening, 1574, third edition [with:] Dodoens, A New Herball, 1595, 2 volumes in all](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/012103c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5316x3636+0+0/resize/150x103!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2Fdd%2F9d%2F3260348d4ba2bcd17769960048ef%2Fl25401-dg2qj-t2-04.jpg)
30. Plants and gardening—Hill | The Profitable Arte of Gardening, 1574, third edition [with:] Dodoens, A New Herball, 1595, 2 volumes in all

31. Hans Holbein the Younger | The Images of the Old Testament, Lyons, 1549, first edition in English

32. Holinshed | The Chronicles, 1586-7, 3 volumes bound in 2, plus further volume of eighteenth-century reprints of cancelled leaves, a quintessential piece of Elizabethan secular scholarship

33. Thomas Elyot and others | Instructional texts for princes and aristocrats, 4 volumes in all

34. Jacobsz | Pascaarte van alle de Zee-custen van Europa, Amsterdam, 1655
![William Langham | The Garden of Health, 1579 [i.e. 1597], first edition of an early guide to herbal remedies](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c018678/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1360x2000+0+0/resize/150x221!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2Fwebnative%2Fimages%2F9d%2F40%2F54b1a10947aa92248b35e9d7bb5b%2Fl25401-dfyy5-t2-02.jpg)
35. William Langham | The Garden of Health, 1579 [i.e. 1597], first edition of an early guide to herbal remedies

36. William Langland | The Vision of Pierce Plowman, London, 1561

37. Law and Legal History

38. Legal history | A group of printed English Statutes, 22 works in 21 volumes

39. Sir Thomas Littleton | Lyttilton Tenures truely translated into Englyshe, 1538, the first textbook on English property law

40. Nicolaus de Lyra | Praeceptorium, Cologne, 1496, contemporary stamped calf, Hildesheim copy

41. Machiavelli | The Florentine Historie, 1595, first edition in English

42. Unavailable

43. Thomas More | The Confutacyon of Tyndales answere, both parts, 1532

44. Thomas More | The Debellacyon of Salem and Bizance, 1533, the Foyle copy

45. Thomas More | Workes, 1557, eighteenth-century sprinkled calf gilt, the Chatsworth copy

46. Abraham Munting | Naauwkeurige Beschryving der Aardgewassen, 1696, fine botanical engravings

47. John Palsgrave | L'Esclaircissement de la Langue Francoyse, 1530, the first French grammar and the first French-English dictionary
![Petrarch [Thomas Twyne, translator] | Phisicke against fortune, 1579, first English translation](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a49cb02/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1374x2000+0+0/resize/150x218!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2Fwebnative%2Fimages%2Fb9%2Fbd%2F70a678b84d819e510500c52ea7e7%2Fl25401-dfyxg-t2-02.jpg)
48. Petrarch [Thomas Twyne, translator] | Phisicke against fortune, 1579, first English translation