57th Melbourne Rare Book Fair 2026

30 July - 1 August 2026

Wilson Hall
The University of Melbourne

1
Among the earliest surviving complete sutra manuscripts
[Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra] - Xuanzang (transl.). Daihannya haramitta kyo, kan dai-nihyaku-nanajushi (Mahaprajnaparamita …Japan, Tenpyo 13 741.
€ 200,000.00
Very probably the oldest dated Buddhist sutra in private hands, written barely half a century after Japan’s earliest surviving manuscript sutra, today preserved in the Nara National Museum (cf. below) and equally remarkable in its own right as a day-dated witness from 741 CE. This complete volume is among the earliest manuscripts within the Great …
2
"Where in Europe would one find an eighth-century manuscript, with known provenance from the twelfth century onwards?”
[Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra] - Xuanzang (transl.). Daihannya sutra scroll (Mahaprajnaparamita sutra). Vol. 470, third section …Japan Nara, late Nara or early Heian period, circa 800 CE.
€ 75,000.00
Extremely rare handwritten volume of the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra, copied in the eighth century and bearing a later dedication date of 1177. This volume preserves the third of four sections of Chapter 76, "Characteristics of the Manifold Virtues".
The chapter addresses a central paradox of Prajnaparamita thought: although all dharmas are empty …
3
A Carolingian Codex from St. Gall
Hieronymus (St Jerome). Explanationum in Esaiam prophetam libri IX-XVI.St Gall, 901-950 AD.
Inquire
The only St Gall manuscript to appear on the market since 1905, still in its medieval binding, complete with pastedowns from earlier Carolingian Bibles. Its dating to the first half of the tenth century places it among an infinitesimally small group of pre-950 Carolingian books to come up for sale since 1950. Apparently copied in the Swiss Abbey …
4
Early 12th century Latin Bible manuscript from Limoges
[Biblia latina - NT - Epistulae Paulinae, Epistulae Catholicae, Apocalypsis]. - Petrus del Casta (scribe). Pauline Epistles, Catholic Epistles and the Apocalypse, glossed.Limoges, ca. 1100.
€ 125,000.00
A superb example of Limoges Romanesque manuscript production of the first half of the 12th century, written by Petrus del Casta for the Augustinian Abbey of St-Jean-de-Côle, containing one of the earliest surviving texts of the Glossa Ordinaria.
Petrus del Casta is known from the colophon in a Homilies on Ezechiel (ex Phillipps no. 934/2708, …
5
King Menander’s dialogue with a Buddhist monk in a complete 12th-century manuscript
Nagasena (Nasen Bikuyo). Nasen Biku Kyo [Milindapanha - Questions of King Milinda].Japan, 12th century CE, late Heian period.
€ 135,000.00
A late-Heian witness to one of Buddhism’s most consequential Indian dialogues. This two-volume Japanese manuscript of the Milindapanha, transmitted in East Asia under the title "Nasen Biku Kyo", preserves the older recension of the text, traditionally regarded as closer to the original form, and survives in a copy whose material history remains …
6
The foundational work of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism, printed in the 13th century
Honen. Senchaku hongan nembutsu shu [Passages on the Selection of the Nembutsu …Kyoto, Kencho era, 1249-1256.
€ 165,000.00
One of the earliest printings of Honen’s defining doctrinal statement, preserved complete in two books and on sumptuous gold- and silver-sprinkled paper. The present copy unites an early survival of the Senchaku hongan nembutsu shu with a level of material refinement rarely encountered in Buddhist printing, the old indigo covers and pasted-leaf …
7
An unrecorded 14th-century manuscript of a foundational scientific text: the earliest European work of experimental science
Peregrinus, Petrus (Pierre de Maricourt). Tractatus de magnete. [In a compendium of scientific texts, together with …Italy, ca. 1380-1400.
€ 480,000.00
A truly outstanding late medieval manuscript comprising six self-contained works on chemistry, medicine, mechanics, engineering, and applied physics, including "one of the most impressive scientific treatises of the Middle Ages" (DSB X, 537): Peregrinus's "Tractatus de magnete", "the first extant treatise on the properties and applications of magnets" …
8
Exceptional mercantile manuscript
[Mercantile manuscript]. Libro d'Abbaco.Milan?, second half of the 15th century.
€ 165,000.00
Abacus books, of which the present manuscript is an excellent example, were compilations of practical and recreational mathematics, of geometrical questions and of algebra, used by merchants in Renaissance northern Italy (Folkerts, XII, 1), a tradition which flourished after Leonardo Fibonacci's "Liber abbaci" (1202/28) (Van Egmond, 6; Folkerts, …
9
First issue with the first printed chessboard
Publicius, Jacobus. Ars oratoria. Ars epistolandi. Ars memorativa.Venice, 30 Nov 1482.
€ 85,000.00
First edition, first issue of the first printed treatise on memory, and the issue containing the first printed illustration of a chessboard: Jacobus Publicius's celebrated compendium of rhetoric, letter-writing, and mnemonic technique, here in a copy notable for its wide margins and extensive early modern annotations.
The work brings together …
10
Bound for the Italian engineer and industrialist Ernesto Pagnoni
Augustine of Hippo, Saint (Pseudo-). Soliloquia animae ad deum.Italy, late 14th or 15th century.
€ 65,000.00
The "Soliloquies of St Augustine", an inner dialogue on the matter of the soul. While throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance the text was generally attributed to St Augustine of Hippo and it commonly preceded the "Confessions" in early medieval copies, the authorship is now doubted.
At the end of the volume, fol. 65v and ff. 66f. have additional …
11
A landmark of Renaissance illustration, "the first illustrated architectural book to be published"
[Colonna, Francesco]. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, ubi humana omnia non nisisomnium esse docet …Venice, Dec. 1499.
€ 350,000.00
First edition of this typographic masterpiece, the apogee of Venetian xylography in the quattrocento. The most celebrated illustrated printed book of the Italian Renaissance (and the only illustrated book published by Aldus), the "Hypnerotomachia" is generally considered the magnum opus of Aldine craft and a veritable design encyclopedia. William …
12
The Doheny copy of the Great Bible
[Biblia anglica]. The Byble in Englyshe, that is to say the content of al the Holy Scrypture, …London, July 1540.
€ 100,000.00
A Reformation milestone: the first complete Bible in English authorised for use in churches, in its rare third edition, the second to bear a preface from Thomas Cranmer. Also a major step in the development of modern English, it represented a crucial bridge between the banned earlier translation by Tyndale and the King James Version.
This volume …
13
Fifty imaginary island cities, drawn for the Doge of Venice
Vericci, Marco. "Inmaginationi Millitari." Manuscript on paper, in Italian.Venice, 20 Sep 1595.
€ 185,000.00
Unique album with splendid manuscript designs for imaginary fortified cities, created for and dedicated to Marino Grimani in the year of his appointment as Doge of the City and Republic of Venice, which he would reign over until his death. Grimani served as Superintendent of Fortresses before becoming Doge and worked for many years on the design …
14
The original record of the exorcism that shook seventeenth-century Spain: with Satan's signature
[Spanish Inquisition]. Relacion y autos originales del Pleyto del Cura de Madrilexos.Madridejos / Tembleque / Toledo, April - May 1604.
€ 85,000.00
The unpublished and previously lost record of the exorcism of Catalina Diaz, whose case so enthralled popular imagination that it inspired a popular pamphlet and a play by three of Spain's golden-age dramatists. Offering new insights on the case, this remarkable manuscript offers to shed light on the heady climate of suspicion and superstition that …
15
A radical abolitionist in the age of Shakespeare: original Quiròs manuscript memorial arguing against the Black slave trade
Quirós, Pedro Fernández de, explorer and navigator (1563-1614). Manuscript memorial to Philip III of Spain.Madrid, possibly before September 1611.
€ 450,000.00
An exceptional document in the history of Portuguese colonization of South America, and one of the greatest rarities in the field of voyages and exploration: an original manuscript petition, not recorded in any other copy, written to the King of Spain by the Portuguese-Spanish seafarer and discoverer Pedro Fernández de Quirós (Queirós), proposing …
16
1623 Islamic world map in a manuscript attributed to al-Ghazali
Ghazali, Muhammed ibn Muhammed at-Tusi al-. Kitab Jawahir anwar wa ma'dan al-hukm wa al-asrar.North Africa, 1623 CE = 1033 H.
€ 85,000.00
Previously unknown and unrecorded: an Arabic cosmographical treatise, illustrated with an exceedingly rare full-page Islamic map of the world, attributed by its scribe to the great Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (ca. 1058-1111 CE). Perhaps the work of a Pseudo-Ghazali (or even the Renewer of the Faith himself), the manuscript was copied in 17th century …
17
Illustrated Late Ming Woodblock Edition of the "School Sayings of Confucius"
Kong Qiu [Confucius]. Xinke Zhang Tianru taishi pingshi Kongsheng jiayu [Newly Cut 'School Sayings …Hangzhou, 1631-1641.
€ 75,000.00
The second known copy: a rare and handsomely illustrated late-Ming woodblock printing of the "School Sayings of Confucius", a collection of conversations that the philosopher supposedly had during his lifetime. At least partly apocryphal, they cover such topics as Confucius's life and character, his discussions on governance, ritual, and ethics, …
18
Early Edo manuscript of the Hogen-Heiji tales
[Gunki monogatari]. Hogen Heiji monogatari [Tales of the Hogen and Heiji Rebellions].Japan, early Edo period 17th century CE.
€ 35,000.00
An early Edo manuscript of the paired war tales Hogen monogatari and Heiji monogatari, preserved in six volumes distinguished by their sumptuous gold-decorated covers and endpapers. This copy matters above all for the survival of an evidently deluxe reading manuscript of two foundational narratives of medieval Japanese military literature.
The …
19
Twelve Gondarene paintings in a Marian Ge'ez codex
[Ethiopian Life of Mary texts]. Marian texts.Ethiopia, late 17th or early 18th century.
€ 95,000.00
A richly illuminated Marian Ge'ez codex with twelve full-page paintings. This substantial vellum manuscript gathers devotional, homiletic, hymnographic, apocalyptic, and historical materials associated with the Virgin Mary, preserving an unusually vivid visual and textual witness to Ethiopian Orthodox Marian devotion.
The volume opens with …
20
"The two Beasts rise out of the sea & earth"
Newton, Isaac, English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and author (1642-1727). Autograph manuscript.No place, ca. 1705-1710.
€ 65,000.00
Fragment of a treatise on prophecy, discussing the Seven Epistles of Christ in the second and third chapters of the Revelation. "In the middle 1680s [and carried on to about 1705-10], Newton undertook a major revision of his treatise on Revelation in which he incorporated his new perception of Jewish ritual as a type and much else besides [...] What …
21
Sterne's masterpiece in a complete first-state first edition, signed by the author
Sterne, Laurence. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.York and London, 1760-1767.
€ 28,000.00
The anarchic masterpiece that revolutionised the English-language novel, in its first state and first edition, signed by the author. All original features are preserved, including the marbled page in lively colour: an especially advanced and daring visual effect in eighteenth-century printing, which Sterne called "the motly emblem of my work".
Sterne's …
22
The printing duchess of revolutionary France
[Defoe, Daniel / de Montmorency Lunyes, Guyonne-Élisabeth-Josèphe (transl.)]. The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner. …Dampierre, 1797.
€ 28,000.00
With an innovative interlinear translation designed for the education of her own son, this extremely rare edition of the premier English adventure novel showcases the skill of the Duchess of Luynes as an amateur printer. The bilingual Robinson Crusoe was the very first product from the press she operated herself at her Château at Dampierre. Produced …
23
Exceptionally elaborate Tibetan astrological roll
[Tibetan divination]. Astrologer's manual.Tibet, 18th century.
€ 75,000.00
Remarkably elaborate Tibetan astrologer’s manual in scroll format, combining mnemonic utility and visual breadth in a large-scale working handbook of divination. A highly uncommon survival.
The scroll brings together ten substantial sections devoted to sacred sites and funerary topography, natal auguries, lunar phases, the "cosmic tortoise" …
24
In original West African binding
[Sudani Qu'ran]. Sudani Qur'an.West Africa, 18th/19th c. CE.
€ 24,000.00
A complete Qur’an, executed in the Sudani style characteristic of Islamic manuscript production in West Africa. The writing is upright, angular, and spacious, with distinctive sublinear dots and elongated vertical strokes. Decoration employs mineral and plant-based pigments (ochre, red, green, white) without the use of gold, in keeping with regional …
25
Visceral Jain hell cycle in fresh colours
[Jain tradition]. Swarga-Narak (Jain Hell Book).Gujarat or Rajasthan, c. 1800.
€ 18,500.00
Vivid colours bring out the pains of Hell in this imaginative, visceral, and fascinating series of illustrations in the Jain "Swarg[y]a-Narak" ("heaven and hell") tradition. Naraka (Hell) in Jainism consists of seven levels, with souls tormented until their negative karma has been expiated and they can be reborn into a higher level of the world.
The …
26
Unrecorded Persian sexual treatises with Pahlavi provenance
Abd al Majid, Muhammad / al-Farjani, Zakariya Shakti (pseud.). Four Persian treatises on Sexuality: Khitna-yi Zanan va tashrih-i mukhtan-i …North India, 9 April 1805 CE = 9 Muharram 1220 H.
€ 75,000.00
Formerly in the collection of Prince Shahram Pahlavi Nia: a unique dated North Indian manuscript of startling explicitness, preserving four sections that form a compilation on female anatomy, circumcision, lesbian desire, and erotic anecdote.
Originally part of a larger codex on sexuality, these four treatises appear to have circulated separately …
27
Extremely rare Schubert working autograph for a Missa solemnis
Schubert, Franz, Austrian composer (1797-1828). Mass No. 5 in A-flat major, D 678, Credo, 131-154. "Fagotto secondo. Zum …Probably Vienna, ca. 1820-1822.
€ 185,000.00
Extremely rare autograph musical manuscript: Schubert’s supplementary leaf for the second bassoon part of his Mass in A-flat major, preserving a revision to the 'Grave' section of the Credo and thus constituting a direct witness to the compositional workshop of one of his most ambitious sacred works.
The autograph heading, "Zum Grave im Credo …
28
The secret of the chess-playing "Mechanical Turk"
Willis, Robert. An Attempt to Analyse the Automaton Chess Player of Mr. de Kempelen. With …London, 1821.
€ 9,500.00
First edition of a ground-breaking study in the analysis of machine intelligence, focusing on the "Mechanical Turk", an automaton chess-player that wowed audiences with its ability to defeat human opponents in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The work of the Austro-Hungarian inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734-1804), the …
29
Unrecorded Edo military atlas with clear and beautiful battle plans
Magaribuchi Nizaemon Kagehira. Jokaku heiho no zu [Castle and military strategy diagrams].Japan, Bunsei 13 1830.
€ 9,500.00
Highly attractive and extremely rare Edo-period Japanese manuscript, featuring sharply drawn castle maps and well-defined battle and formation diagrams.
The work is signed repeatedly by Magaribuchi Nizaemon Kagehira, whose written seal (kaou mark) and stamp attest that he was the issuing authority of the work. Seven further names are listed, …
30
Exceptionally rare: the Thousand and One Nights, the first complete edition in Arabic and the first edition printed in the Arab world
[Arabian Nights]. Kitab Alf layla wa-layla. Vols. I and II.Bulaq, 1835 CE = 1251 H.
€ 285,000.00
First complete edition in Arabic of the Thousand and One Nights, and the first edition printed in the Arab world. Very rare, with only seven copies located in libraries worldwide (American University Beirut, British Library, Danish Royal Library, Harvard, Huntington, and Yale); none traced in auction records. The Bulaq edition was preceded by another …
31
Showing the northern coastline of Australia: the royal "mappemonde" in a rare 19th century lithograph
Desceliers, Pierre. Lithographed facsimile of the world map painted on vellum for Henry II, …Paris, 1852.
€ 250,000.00
Original-size facsimile of the manuscript nautical "mappemonde" executed by Pierre Desceliers in 1546, featuring what appears to be the northern coastline of Australia and thus bolstering the early Portuguese discovery theory of Australia.
Commissioned by King Francis I for his son (who would be crowned Henry II in 1547), Desceliers' "Dauphin …
32
Unrecorded variant of the 'rara avis' of Darwin bibliography: a proto-first issue of the second edition
Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation …London, 1859 but: Jan. 1860.
€ 35,000.00
Almost unobtainly rare revised issue of the first edition, or rather the intermediary stage to the first issue of the second edition, called by Darwin himself "only a reprint [with] a few important corrections". Published in January 1860, this is the only known copy to retain the year "1859" on the title-page, the original two quotations opposite …
33
"when in the dead of the night the thought comes across me how I have been treated"
Darwin, Charles, English naturalist (1809-1882). Autograph letter signed.Down, Beckenham, Kent, 13 Jan 1881.
€ 45,000.00
To the writer and critic Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), whose copy this book is, responding to Sir Leslie's reassurances after having been attacked by the novelist Samuel Butler (1835-1902): "My dear Leslie Stephen. Your note is one of the kindest which I have ever received, & your advice shall be strictly followed. It was very good of you, busy …
34
First issue of Herzl’s Zionist manifesto
Herzl, Theodor. Der Judenstaat. Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage.Leipzig & Vienna, 1896.
€ 18,500.00
First edition, first state (one of 300 copies): Theodor Herzl's landmark manifesto for an independent Jewish state, commonly called the single most important manifesto of modern Zionism. "That a Jewish State was created in Palestine within fifty years of [Herzl's] death was due to the vision and the practical methods of Herzl, expressed in [this] …
35
An exemplar of Sudanese manuscript tradition
Ibn Hassan, Omar. Prayers and excerpts from the Qur’an copied by ‘Omar ibn Hassan.Sudan, 19th century CE.
€ 18,000.00
This manuscript, laid loosely in goatskin, comprises a selection of prayers and excerpts of the Qur'an in bold maghribi script, copied by a man named 'Omar ibn Hassan in Sudan. Laid in is a curatorial note written on the reverse of a printed invitation inscribed to Ruskin Butterfield (1872-1935), a curator of the Hastings Museum and allegedly involved …
36
Among the earliest dated twentieth-century witnesses of Kunnash al Haik
Haik, Ibn Abdallah Mohammed ibn al-Hussein al-. Kunnash al-Haik [The Songbook of Haik].North Africa, 27 January 1908 CE = 23 Dhu'l-Hijja 1325 H.
€ 8,500.00
Among the earliest dated 20th-century witnesses presently recorded: a complete, substantial manuscript of the "Kunnash al-Haik", the principal songbook of the Moroccan Andalusi musical tradition associated with Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Haik al-Titwani al-Tunisi al-Andalusi, preserving songs, nawbas, muwashshahat, zajals, and related repertory used …
37
The Riemann Zeta-Function: Turing’s signed copy
Titchmarsh, E[dward] C[harles]. The Zeta-Function of Riemann. (Cambridge Tracts in Mathematics and Mathematical …Cambridge, 1930.
€ 28,000.00
First edition of the earliest systematic monograph on the Riemann zeta-function, written by the mathematician E. C. Titchmarsh while at Magdalen College, Oxford, this copy signed “A. M. Turing” in pencil on the upper wrapper. The Riemann Zeta function serves as a foundational mathematical tool in modern AI for optimizing complex neural network …
38
Exceptional Einstein signed portrait, inscribed with equations to his U.S. violin specialist
Einstein, Albert, theoretical physicist (1879-1955). Vintage photograph signed and inscribed “Mr. F. M. Brown, Albert Einstein”, …Probably California, 1932.
€ 58,000.00
An exceptional vintage portrait showing Einstein, pipe in mouth, standing on the deck of the Dutch steamship SS Rotterdam on his arrival in New York from Europe in April 1921. Captured at the height of his worldwide fame on his first U.S. visit, the image recalls the public reception that accompanied the transatlantic voyage, undertaken in part to …
39
Signed 1964 industrial abstraction by the computer pioneer Konrad Zuse
Zuse, Konrad, German computer pioneer (1910-1995). Autograph drawing: industrial scene with crane.No place, 1964.
€ 28,000.00
A vivid signed industrial abstraction of unusual immediacy, Zuse's drawing condenses the images of a crane, scaffolding, and skyline into an energetic work on paper. The date places this work securely within the artist’s early mature pictorial phase.
Konrad Zuse built the world's first functional programmable computer (the Z3) in 1941; today, …
40
Talismanic board for female patrons
[Nigeria - Hausa]. A talismanic Hausa Allo board for women patrons.Northern Nigeria, 1970s/1980s.
€ 4,500.00
A great rarity on the market: a clandestine talismanic board of the type kept in many Western African homes, syncretising Muslim and local older faiths and cosmological beliefs. This example was made for two female patrons.
While Qur'anic writing exercise boards are common, talismanic examples such as these are manufactured by special request …

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