A Look Inside the Catalogue: Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books

This sale on March 8 will feature an extensive selection of early Spanish books on a variety of subjects including agriculture, heraldry and genealogy, history, horses, law, literature, medicine, theology and travel. Printed circa 1496-97, Arte de Ajedres by Luis de Lucena is the earliest surviving manual of chess, leading a sizable section of incunabula.

Scientific highlights include the first illustrated editions of two early astronomical texts: the 1478 Sphaera mundi by Johannes Sacrobosco, and the 1482 Poeticon Astronomicon by Caius Julius Hyginus. The travel section contains scarce works on missionary journeys to the East, particularly accounts of ill-fated ventures in Japan such as José Sicardo’s 1698 Christiandad del Japón.

Lot 113: Luis de Lucena, Arte de Ajedres, first edition of the earliest extant manual on modern chess, Salamanca, circa 1496-97.
Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

Lot 156: Pedro de Gracia Dei, Blasón General y Nobleza del Universo, illuminated manuscript, Spain, circa 1500. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.

Lot 109: Caius Julius Hyginus, Poeticon Astronomicon, first illustrated edition, with 47 half-page woodcuts, Venice, 1482. Estimate $15,000 to $20,000.