Books and Manuscripts
Via Pontaccio, 12 Milan
Auction: 22 January 2019
Viewing: 18, 19, 20 January 2019 (10 am/1 pm-2.30/6.30 pm)
The auction of Books and Manuscripts will be Il Ponte’s first sale of 2019 with an interesting selection of lots which cover over 500 years of history, from the 15th to the 20th-century.
From the 15th-century is and important incunable containing to editions of De situ orbis by Pomponio Mela and Dionisio il Periegeta (lot 36, estimate 6.000-9.000€) printed in Venice in 1478. Mela’s work is the fourth edition of the earliest extant geography in Latin and the only Roman work devoted solely to the subject.
From the 16th-century is an important collection of works by Boccaccio printed in Venice in a fine contemporary Venetian red morocco binding (lot 96, estimate 3.000-5.000€).
Another precious object in the sale is fine copy of a Hebrew book from the end of the 17th-century (lotto 127, val. 3.000-3.500€) bound in an elaborate silver binding with gilt arms.
A series of books celebrate Rome in its Baroque period and are filled with magnificent views of the city: Giovanni Battista Falda and Alessandro Specchi’s work celebrate Rome during Alessandro VII (lot 58, estimate 4.000-6.000€) and Pietro Ferrerio and Falda (lot 60, estimate 2.500-3.500€) focuses on the architecture of the Roman Palazzi.
The preparatory watercolours by Daniel Perea y Rojas to the renown album A Los Toros are another exceptional lot in the sale. (lotto 74, val. 4.000-6.000€); extremely rare is the fine copy of the first edition of the major early papers of Joseph-Louis Lagrange, on the calculus of variations and mechanics (lot 32, estimate 3.000-5.000€).
A strong section of autograph letter contains some interesting documents and caricatures by Enrico Caruso, Arturo Martini and Margherita Sarfatti, this latter one with a note on the "Novecento" artistic movement.