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 & Objects from Three Important Collections
2 April - 17 April 2026 • London
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Your local time • 13:00 PM GMT
1 "A.D." | Manuscript of Le Piquet..., Paris, 1772, contemporary French red morocco gilt
2 Automaton Chess Player | A group of 10 rare volumes on the purported Enlightenment precursor to modern-day artificial intelligence
3 Francesco Barozzi | Il nobilissimo et antiquissimo giuoco Pythagoreo nominato Rythmomachia, Venice, 1572, eighteenth-century morocco gilt for Doge Marco Foscarini
4 Filippo Beroaldo | Ein hüpsche subtyliche Declamation, Strassburg, 1513, a satire against vices including gambling
5 Claude de Boissière | Nobilissimus et antiquissimus ludus Pythagoreus, Paris, 1556
6 Sebastian Brant | Varia carmina, Basel, 1498, containing a poem about life as a chess game versus Death
7 Ibn Butlan | Schachtafelen der Gesuntheyt, Strassburg, 1533
8 Ivan Butrimov | O shakhmatnoy igrye, St. Petersburg, 1821, inscribed by the author to the poet Nikita Ivanovich Butyrsky
9 Castiglione | Il cortegiano... Nuovamente stampato, Venice, 1546, contemporary limp vellum, Baron Christoph von Wolkenstein's copy
10 Jacobus de Cessolis | Schachzabelbuch, Strasbourg, 1483, von der Lasa copy
11 Jacobus de Cessolis | Libro di Givocho di Scacchi, [Florence,] 1493, the Dyson Perrins copy
12 Jacobus de Cessolis | De ludo scachorum, Toulouse, [c.1494], the Syston Park-von der Lasa copy
13 Jacobus de Cessolis | Tractatus de Scachis, 1505, the Zass-Blass copy
14 Jacobus de Cessolis | Opera nuova..., Venice, 1534, the Walker-Rimington-Wilson copy
15 Jacobus de Cessolis | Dechado de la Vida humana, Valladolid, 1549, first Spanish edition, von der Lasa-Robert Blass copy
16 Pedro de Cobarrubias | Remedio de jugadores, Salamanca, 1543
17 Stephanus Costa | De ludo, Pavia, 1489
18 [Charles Cotton] | The Compleat Gamester, 1674, 19th-century crushed morocco
19 Carlo Cozio | Nuova Idea per lo Il Giuoco degli Scacchi, manuscript, 1766
20 Artemidorus Daldianus | Oneirokritikön biblia pente, Venice, 1518
21 Pedro Damiano da Odemira | Libro da imparare giocare a scachi, Rome, 1524, third edition of the first Italian chess book, 19th-century red morocco, Giovan Battista Cini's copy
22 Pedro Damiano da Odemira | Libro da imparare giocare a scachi, Rome, undated, fourth edition, the Rimington Wilson copy
23 Pedro Damiano da Odemira | Libro da imparare giocare a scachi, [?Rome, after 1524], fifth edition, Niemeijer copy
24 Pedro Damiano da Odemira | Libro da imparare giocare à scachi, Rome, von der Lasa copy
25 Pedro Damiano da Odemira | Le plaisant jeu des eschecz renouvelle, Paris, 1560, [bound with] Xenophon, Le Mesnagier, 1562, contemporary limp vellum gilt
26 Pedro Damiano da Odemira | Libro da imparare a giocar à scachi, [Venice, ?1564], Carl Jaenisch's copy
27 Jean Pierre Elme Leduc [Saint-Elme-le-Duc] | Two manuscript volumes
28 Benjamin Franklin | Chess Made Easy, 1797, first edition
29 Benjamin Franklin | Chess Made Easy, Philadelphia, 1802, the earliest recorded chess book printed in America
30 Johannes Gallensis | Summa collationum, 1489
31 José Carlos Garcés y de la Sierra Boil de Arenós | Libro nuevo, juego de damas, 1684, a rare early Spanish work on checkers
32 Christian Gottfried Heinrich Geißler and Johann Georg Richter | Spiele und Belustigungen der Russen aus den niedern Volks-Klassen, Leipzig, [c.1802–1805]
33 Martin Gosky | Arbustum vel Arboretum, Wolfenbüttel, 1650
34 Karl Gottlieb von Windisch | Lettres sur le joueur d'echecs..., 1783, authorial presentation copy, bound with 2 further works, nineteenth-century armorial red morocco gilt
35 Gioachino Greco | Presentation manuscript of Trattato gioco de scacchi, Rome, 1620
36 Gioachino Greco | Manuscript of Trattato del nobilissimo essercicio de’ Scacchi, 1624, contemporary calf
37 Gioachino Greco | The royall game of chesse-play, 1656, first printed edition, Bridgewater Library duplicate
38 Emanuel Lasker | ‘The ancient game of chess’, autograph manuscript in English
39 Emanuel Lasker | Three autograph manuscripts, including "Die Elemente des Schachs [The Elements of Chess]"
40 Emanuel Lasker | Three autograph notebooks, including for the St. Petersburg 1914 tournament, 1914 and later
41 [Giambattista Lolli] | Manuscript of Sinopsi de sei capitoli componenti il Trattato dSinopsi de sei capitoli componenti il Trattato della difesa dell’Anonimo Modanese, 1762
42 Ruy López de Sigura | Libro de la invencion liberal y arte del juego del axedrez, Alcalá de Henares, 1561
43 Ruy López de Sigura | Il giuoco de gli scacchi di Rui Lopez, Venice, 1584, first edition in Italian
44 Ruy López de Sigura | Le royal jeu des eschets avec son invention, science et practique, Paris, 1636
45 Ruy López de Sigura | Le jeu des eschecs, Bruges, 1655
46 Johann Jacob Löwenthal | Two autograph manuscript volumes, c.1860s
47 Luis Ramírez de Lucena | Repetición de amores y arte de ajedrez, [Salamanca, 1497], the oldest surviving book on the game of chess
48 Philip Marinelli | Triple chess, London, 1826, contemporary red morocco gilt