O ur June sale presents a wide range of early printed books and manuscripts, from an early Samaritan manuscript leaf to fine eighteenth-century illustrated books. There are numerous curiosities, including the unique complete surviving leaf of a table of contents printed by the Dutch Prototypographer, a composite Armenian manuscript of the Gospels with unusual frieze-like illustrations, a fourteenth-century illustration of King Ahaz’s sundial, a monumental manuscript history of the house of the Count-Duke Olivares, a letter from Alfonso d’Este to Ariosto and a seventeenth-century Icelandic binding. English literary highlights include a first edition of Chapman’s complete Homer, a letter by Jonathan Swift, and two volumes containing a few plays extracted from the Shakespeare Second Folio and owned by Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier respectively. The sale includes a large selection of Aldine editions and some fascinating provenances, from John Flaxman to Richard Heber to Renouard to William Morris and Count Boutourlin, as well as some charming period bindings. Of particular significance is the first Florentine edition of Machiavelli’s The Prince (1532) and Giordano Bruno’s play Il Candelaio (Paris, 1582).
![View 1 of Lot 2: Leaf from a Gospel Lectionary, decorated manuscript on vellum [Italy, 12th century]](https://sothebys-com.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a5c9aff/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1452x2000+0+0/resize/273x376!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com%2F05%2Feb%2Fc95e2b70419eb2f6d1489380a15d%2Fl21409-bllnt-1.jpg)
![View 1 of Lot 31: A leaf from the Samaritan Pentateuch [probably Nablus, 12th century], framed and glazed](https://sothebys-com.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/6577a76/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1703x2000+0+0/resize/320x376!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com%2F9d%2Fa0%2F9caff11d41029696dd5e028a1ea0%2Fl21409-bw92p-1.jpg)
![View 1 of Lot 110: Dutch Prototypographer, Inventory, single sheet, [Utrecht, 1460s], in binding of Eck, Homiliarius, 1536-1540](https://sothebys-com.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9779180/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1391+0+0/resize/330x230!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com%2F1e%2F2b%2F17e53b334bd9a9936225febf107e%2Fl21409-bgpj8-3.jpg)
![View 1 of Lot 32: An illuminated Qur'an folio, [Persia, Safavid, 16th century]](https://sothebys-com.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/db783a4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1517x2000+0+0/resize/285x376!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com%2Fbe%2F26%2F0e84e62b4c39bc2ea9099f157d53%2Fl21409-blm6m-1.jpg)
