Sotheby’s Books & Manuscripts sales feature notable collections and works spanning Americana, literature, historical documents and illustrations, offering a remarkable array for both seasoned collectors and new enthusiasts alike. Browse works across the auctions below or learn more here.
(Bible) — Julia Evelina Smith (trans.) | First edition of the first complete English Bible translated by a woman
Bid Now
(Key, Francis Scott) | Second printing of the words and music to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” accompaned by songs of the Anacreontic Society, including "Anacreontic Song"
Bid Now
Perotti, Cornucopiae, siue linguae Latinae commentarii, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, July 1499, eighteenth-century mottled vellum with Fortescue blind armorial stamp on front cover
Bid Now
Capaccio, Delle imprese, Naples, 1592, contemporary vellum
Bid Now
Neri, Antonio | The first manual on the art of glassblowing
Bid Now
Cancrin, Franz Ludwig von | Erste Gründe der Berg und Salzwerkskunde
Bid Now
[Scriptores rei rusticae] Libri de re rustica, Paris, 1533, contemporary vellum
Bid Now
Alciati, Emblemata, Frankfurt, 1567, calf gilt with arms of Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar
Bid Now
Baif, Annotationes in legem II, Basel, 1537, contemporary Roman morocco for Fernando de Torres
Bid Now
Pentateuch (Humash), with Targum Onkelos and Rashi’s Commentary, Printed on Parchment
Bid Now
Vitruvius, De architectura libri decem, [Lyon, Lucimborgo da Gabiano, 1523], early nineteenth-century French red long-grained morocco
Bid Now
Castellesi, De sermone Latino, Cologne, 1524, French brown calf
Bid Now
Glauber, Johann Rudolf | Works
Bid Now
Bolzanio, Institutiones graecae grammatices, Venice, Aldus, 1497, navy morocco by Kalthoeber
Bid Now
De l'Orme, Nouvelles inventions, Paris, 1576; Boillot, Nouveaux pourtraitz, Langres, 1592, later calf
Bid Now
Diogenes Laertius, Le vite de gli illustri filosofi, Venice, 1545, contemporary Italian dark brown morocco gilt
Bid Now
Aristotle, Libri physicorum octo, Lyon, 1542, contemporary Venetian chestnut morocco gilt
Bid Now
Accolti, Lo inganno de gl'occhi, Florence, 1625, armorial red morocco gilt for Núñez de Guzmán, Godolphin copy
Bid Now
Kundmann, Johann Christian | An extensive catalogue of a German Wunderkammer, describing shells, fossils, minerals, and stones
Bid Now
Ostericher, De puerorum morbis; Gabuccini, De lumbricis alvum occupantibus, Lyon, 1549, Parisian morocco interlaced binding for Marcus Fugger
Bid Now
Vittoria Colonna, Rime, Venice, 1539, Venetian dark blue morocco by the Cicero Binder for Perrenot de Granvelle
Bid Now
Fitzgerald, F. Scott | Tender is the Night, first edition, inscribed to Donald Ogden Stewart
Bid Now
Billon, Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld
Bid Now
Massachusetts General Court | Massachusetts prepares to elect her representatives to the nascent United States House of Representatives
Bid Now
Galenus, De alimentorum facultatibus, Lyon, 1549, brown morocco gilt for Marcus Fugger
Bid Now
Becher, Johann Joachim | Two works in one volume
Bid Now
Piles, Abregé de la vie des peintres, Paris, 1699, contemporary red morocco gilt for the Duc d'Orléans
Bid Now
Pollux, Onomasticon, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, 1502, eighteenth-century English brown calf
Bid Now
Piccolomini, De la institutione di tutta la vita de l'homo, Venice, 1545, contemporary brown morocco gilt for A.S.
Bid Now
Werner, Abraham Gottlob | First edition of the author's first book
Bid Now
Laue, Max von | "One of the most beautiful discoveries in physics" — Albert Einstein
Bid Now
Falloppio, Gabriele | First edition of lectures on mineral springs and fossils, Venice, 1564
Bid Now
Claudianus, Opera, Venice, Aldus, 1523, contemporary Roman brown morocco
Bid Now
Simon, John | Mezzotint of Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row, one of the "Four Kings" who met Queen Anne in 1710
Bid Now
Vergil, Symbolarum libri XVII, Augsburg, 1599, Parisian red morocco gilt for Bartolomeo Cenami
Bid Now
Vincentius Bellovacensis | Second edition of the first printed encyclopedia of natural history, summarizing medieval knowledge of the natural world
Bid Now