2025 New York Antiquarian Book Fair
65th New York International Antiquarian Book Fair
Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue, New York
Booth B1
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1Royal Babylonian correspondence on clayBabylonian cuneiform clay tablet.Eshnunna now Tell Asmar, Iraq, early 2nd millennium BCE.
€ 35,000.00An Old Babylonian letter from Iluni, ruler of Eshnunna, to Warassa, King of Der (now Tell Aqar, near modern al-Badrah), both of whom were younger contemporaries of Hammurabi. The communication touches upon several matters of regional politics at a volatile time when Eshnunna was seeking to preserve a modicum of independence while already de facto …
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2To the memory of a formerly enslaved woman, freed by her mistressA Roman marble funerary plaque inscribed for the freedwoman Quirinia Felicula.Rome, 1st half of 1st century CE.
€ 48,000.00A tablet of marble engraved with five lines within a double-rule border, commemorating the dedication of a funerary urn to Quirina Felicula, who had been born a slave and was freed by her mistress. The plaque reads, in full: "Quiriniae [mulieris] l[ibertae] / Feliclae / ollam dat / C[aius] Valerius / Pylodamus", that is to say: "Gaius Valerius Pylodamus …
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3A foundational element in the development of written language: the only known complete pairRoman inked wooden tablets: contract for a sale of land.Numidia/Byzacena, Roman Empire, spring 300 CE.
€ 165,000.00One of the earliest extant documents in world history to be written in ink, and the only example of its kind joined and identified as complete: a pair of wooden tablets containing a contract for the sale of land in the Roman province of Africa during the reign of Emperor Diocletian.
These tablets come from a trove discovered in Northern Africa …
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4A palimpsest of stylus scratches: traces of Late Antique handwritingRoman inscribed wooden tablet.Numidia/Byzacena, Roman Empire, early 4th century CE.
€ 18,000.00A fine example of a Late Antique writing tablet from the Roman province of Byzacena. Originally the recessed panel was filled in with a layer of soft wax into which the writer would inscribe his text with a stylus, often also scratching the wooden ground. As such tablets were used over and over again, traces of many different texts can be found on …
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5Fifth century Coptic fragment of the Psalms[Leaf from a MS Coptic Psalter: Psalms 77:25-34].Upper Egypt probably the White Monastery, Sohag, ca. 425 CE / first half of fifth century.
€ 38,000.00A leaf of an early Coptic Psalter, and containing Psalms 77:25-34 in the Sahidic dialect of Upper Egypt, translated in the third or even late second century (see Budge, Nagel). The script here is a fine Coptic Uncial, derived from Greek Uncial, and showing its ultimate debt to older epigraphic letter forms in its monumental and rounded majuscules …
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6"Help from Allah and speedy victory"Polychrome Tarsh (printed amulet).Eastern Iran or Afghanistan, 12th century CE.
InquireAn extreme rarity of Islamic popular devotion: one of only two known Islamic "tarsh" amulets printed in colour. Both examples (the other is now in the David Collection, Copenhagen) have been attributed to Eastern Iran on the basis of the calligraphy and paper (see Fogg, 2003) and the single line of text in Persian. All other known tarshes are thought …
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7"Remember in Christ the worthless scribe Filip-Toros, and you too will be remembered"[Ch'ors Awetaranner]. Armenian Tetraevangelion manuscript on vellum.Cilicia, southern Anatolia, 1224 CE = 673 Armenian Era.
€ 150,000.00An exceptionally early 13th century Armenian Gospel manuscript on vellum, written by a Cilician monk who identifies himself as Filip Toros (Philip Theodore).
The manuscript begins with Matt. 1:17, "And from the Babylonian captivity to Christ - fourteen generations". The Gospels of Mark, Luke, and John all begin with a decorative title frame, …
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8The most important 13-century textbook of canon law: a magnificent manuscript on vellumDecretales Gregorii IX [with gloss of Bernardo Bottoni of Parma]. Constitutiones …Probably Bologna, ca. 1260 3rd quarter of the 13th century CE.
€ 135,000.00An imposing folio manuscript of the most important legal textbook of the 13th century, in its original binding, and with extensive glosses and annotations.
The Decretals of Gregory IX became the fundamental text of canon law, controlling many aspects of secular as well as clerical life. This was what the Pope intended when in 1230 he ordered …
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9English Bible ManuscriptLatin manuscript on vellum.Northern France or England?, ca 1300 CE.
€ 145,000.00A beautiful, complete medieval Bible written in a miniscule bookhand on extremely delicate vellum, probably copied in England or commissioned from there. As is common, the Bible is prefaced with the epistle of St Jerome to Paulinus (53: "Frater Ambrosius [...] moriturum", fols. 1r-3r), followed by Jerome's prologue to the Pentateuch ("Desiderii mei …
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10Yusuf Abu'l Hadchach and the end of Moorish power in SpainPrivilegio rodado, granting the town of Escamjella to Yenego Lopez de …Segovia, Royal Chancery, 29 Sep 1344.
€ 18,000.00A fine, large manuscript document from the reign of Alfonso XI. The Royal Charter is written in Castilian vernacular with the royal names (Alfonso and that of his second wife, Maria of Portugal), opening device and King's seal painted in red, green, blue and beige (the latter occupying a large area at the centre of the document).
In the Charter, …
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11Magnets, hydraulics, alcohol, perpetual motion machines: a beautiful, unrecorded 14th century scientific manuscriptTractatus de magnete. [In a compendium of scientific texts, together with …Italy, ca. 1380-1400.
€ 600,000.00A 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" …
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12The work a Catalan polymath, copied and bound in 15th century TyrolProverbiorum libri Raimundi.Tyrol, ca. 1440s - 1460s.
€ 85,000.00A finely executed, early 15th century manuscript of the great proverb collection assembled by the philosopher and theologian Ramon Llull (ca. 1232-1315).
The Majorcan-born polymath Llull was known at the time as "Doctor Inspiratus" and "Doctor Illuminatus" for the visions he experienced (Bonner, 18), or as "Arabicus Christianus" (Zicanelli, …
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13Exceptional mercantile manuscriptLibro d'Abbaco.Milan?, second half of the 15th century CE.
€ 165,000.00Abacus 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, …
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14Exceptional Timurid MS: the only illuminated copy, with the earliest appearance of illustrations by BihzadJam'i Jam [The Cup of Jamshid].Timurid Herat, 1459/60 CE = 863 H.
€ 750,000.00Princely Timurid manuscript: the only recorded copy of this rare text to be illustrated with miniatures, containing four full-page illustrations ascribed to Kamal al-Din Bihzad and signed by the master scribe Shir' Ali.
This rarely illustrated text is the "Jam'i Jam", or the "Cup of Jamshid", by Awhadi Maragha'i (1274/75-1338 CE). Both a mystical …
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15Illustrated anti-Jewish incunable with a coloured full-page woodcutStern des Meschiah (Contra perfidos Judaeos de conditionibus veri Messiae, …Esslingen, Eve of St. Thomas 20 Dec. 1477.
€ 125,000.00First German edition: the revised and considerably expanded vernacular version of the author's "Tractatus contra perfidos Judeos" ("Treatise against the treacherous Jews") published in 1475. This and the Latin edition together count as the first German-printed books in which Hebrew typefaces were used. They are also the first to contain a printed …
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16The third Aldine: with the editio princeps of the TheogonyIdyllia [Greek]. Add: Theognis; Dionysius Cato: Disticha (Tr: Maximus Planudes); …Venice, Feb. 1495 = 1496.
InquireThe editio princeps of Hesiod's Opera omnia, published as part of the second and most celebrated edition of Theocritus (thirty eclogues by the father of pastoral poetry; the complete text would not appear until the Kallierges edition of 1516), together with the Distichs of Theognis and other Greek opuscula. This is the third book ever produced by …
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17The Catholic Monarchs investigate the case of the mishandled haciendaAutograph document signed by both ("Yo el Rey" and "Yo la Reyna").Toledo, 21 Apr 1498.
€ 15,000.00Decree signed by King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella, the first rulers of dynastically unified Spain, addressed to the prior of the convent of San Benito de Vilha, regarding a dispute over property. The lieutenant Olca de Reynoso had sold a hacienda in Biscaya to one Juan Lopez, but the purchase was contested due to existing rights of the convent …
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18Splendid vellum manuscript by Jean Coene, replete with illuminations of female saints, probably commissioned by a Paris nunneryLatin manuscript on vellum.Northern France, ca. 1500.
€ 185,000.00An uncommonly painstakingly prepared liturgical manuscript with remarkable illumination by the Parisian artist Jean Coene IV, known as the "Master of the Paris Entrances", probably commissioned for a nuns' order. Apart from the hundreds of initials, painted on gilt background and mostly decorated with flowers, berries, and leaves, the manuscript …
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19Peter Martyr, first historian of the Americas, in his own handAutograph receipt of funds, signed in full.Milan, 6 Nov 1515.
€ 65,000.00A unique survival in the hand of Peter Martyr d'Anghiera (1457-1526), the first European historian of the New World. Peter Martyr was an Italian swept up in the milieu of the Spanish court, a tutor to princes, and a personal friend of the likes of Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and Amerigo Vespucci. It was Martyr who wrote the first accounts …
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20The earliest voyage collection to focus on the New WorldLibro primo della historia de l'Indie Occidentali. (Summario de la General …Venice, October 1534.
€ 75,000.00One of the earliest published attempts to assemble a group of travel and exploration accounts. This important collection of voyages and narratives is the work of several authors, although most bibliographers attribute it to Peter Martyr, a translation of whose work makes up the first section. The book was probably compiled for publication by Giovanni …
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211522 travel and navigation advice by Ferdinand Columbus to Charles VAviso de la Orden y Mareaje a la Armada del Emperador Nro Señor Debia …Seville, ca. 1522.
€ 250,000.00Exceptional manuscript by Hernando Colón (Fernando Columbus), one of the first people to travel to America as early as 1502, and son of the most famous explorer of all times.
The present "Aviso de la Orden y Mareaje" was composed by Hernan Colón (1488-1539), one of the first Europeans to travel and explore the coasts of America, a renowned …
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22Luther's New Testament, with lavishly coloured and gilt woodcuts after Hans Holbein the YoungerDas Gantz Neüw Testament recht grüntlich teutscht.Basel, March 1523.
InquireOne of the earliest editions of Luther's German New Testament translation, illustrated with fine woodcuts after Hans Holbein the Younger, all in splendid original hand colour and elegantly gilt. The nearly full-page illustrations show the Saints Matthew (fol. A1r), Mark (G7v), Luke (L6v), and John (S4r), the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit (Z3v), …
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23The first model book of the German Renaissance, with distinguished provenance and magnificently boundEin Frembds und wunderbars Kunstbüchlin allen Molern, Bildschnitzern, …Strasbourg, 1538.
€ 85,000.00First edition of the first model book for artists. Heinrich Vogtherr's popular model book comprises some 700 designs of headwear, hands and feet, armour, weaponry, and columns. The woodcuts of heads, hands and feet are shown in various different attitudes, and the male and female headgear includes contemporary and historical costumes, including some …
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24"For these Jews are not Jews, but devils incarnate who curse our Lord"Autograph letter signed ("Martinus LütheR D").Wittenberg, ca. 1 Sept. 1543.
€ 350,000.00An extensive, uncommonly well-preserved letter to Georg Buchholzer (1503-66), Provost of St Nikolai in Berlin, regarding the latter’s altercation with the Brandenburgian court preacher Johann Agricola from Eisleben (1492-1566, also known as “Magister Eisleben”) about the treatment of the local Jews. Prince Elector Joachim II, who in 1539 had …
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25Martin Luther's scathing antisemitic textVon den Jüden und iren Lügen.Wittenberg, 1543.
€ 15,000.00Extremely rare first edition, first printing of Martin Luther's ruthlessly antisemitic pamphlet. There was another edition printed in 1543 that has a slightly different title-page and only 128 leaves, which is more commonly found. A Latin adaptation by Justus Jonas was published the following year.
Luther long believed he could convince Jewish …
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26The sanitary effects of Arcadian wineTeütsche Speiszkammer. Inn welcher du findest, was gesunden unnd krancken …Strasbourg, 1550.
€ 25,000.00First edition of this extremely rare manual of popular medicine and the sanitary effects of various foods, with chapters on wine, oil, bread, eggs, vinegar, milk and butter, meat and fish, etc. Reprinted in 1555, the work eventually came to be appended to later editions of Bock's famous "Kräuterbuch".
Hailed as one of the fathers of botany, …
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27"Nata in Arabia": The Phoenix in Tasso's own hand"La Fenice". Autograph manuscript signed ("Torq. Tasso").No place, before 1586.
€ 280,000.00A singular find: the autograph presentation copy of Tasso's poem "La Fenice", published twelve years after Tasso's death as part of his great, posthumous "Sette Giornate del Mondo Creato" (and subsequently included as a separate poem in his "Rime"). In this long poem, Tasso celebrates the glorious Arabian-born bird as created by God to symbolize …
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28Fifty imaginary island cities, drawn for the Doge of Venice"Inmaginationi Millitari." Manuscript on paper, in Italian.Venice, 20 Sep 1595.
InquireUnique 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 …
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29A book for eternityDer christlich Glaube Mit Gottseligen christlichen und hoch tröstlichen …Nuremberg, ca. 1600.
€ 295,000.00Unique prayer book manuscript on vellum, containing sixteen full-page illuminated engravings after Marten de Vos: a highly expressive devotional work of the waning 16th century. One of only eight known manuscripts by Hieronymus Oertl, it provides a "unique example of the art of book arts around 1600" (Baeyer, p. 6), highlighting the transitory period …
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30"having writ a base booke to proove the kings murther lawfull, the Duke putt him into close prison"Autograph letter signed ("Elizabeth").The Hague, 8 April 1651.
€ 12,500.00A remarkable letter to Charles II, crowned King only a few months earlier at Scone, in a ceremony recognised only by Scotland. Soon after, the kingdom would be conquered by Cromwell and the royalist cause defeated at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651. Elizabeth had by this time been living in exile in the Hague for decades. She here provides …
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31Galileo's disciples: a new generation of mathematicians in Rome4 autograph letters signed.Rome, February 1661 - August 1662.
€ 18,500.00A fascinating set of four autograph letters by the Italian scientist and cleric Michelangelo Ricci, who played an important role in the development of the Galilean school, very probably all addressed to Galileo Galilei's disciple Carlo Roberto Dati (1619-76). Ricci studied law and theology in Rome, and mathematics with Galileo's confidant Benedetto …
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32The greatest work of Ibn Sina, almost impossible to find completeAl-Qanun fi al-Tibb [The Canon of Medicine].Eastern Mediterranean, 17th century dated 800 H / 1397/98 in colophon, likely copying the earlier date of a source manuscript.
€ 135,000.00Almost never found complete in a single manuscript: all five volumes of Ibn Sina's greatest work, copied in the 1600s CE. For over five hundred years "al-Qanun fi al-Tibb" dominated medical science in the Muslim and Christian worlds alike, but it is difficult to locate on the market even split into individual books. One complete manuscript is known …
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33The organ-maker of ViennaDocument signed ("Ant. Salieri Maestro di Capella della Corte Imperiale").Vienna, 9 Apr 1798.
€ 25,000.00Confirming that the late Johann Friedrich Ferstl was an active member of the imperial and royal court chapel and belonged to the imperial household: "Daß der seel. Johann Fridolin Ferstl Hoforgelmacher als wirkliches Mitglied bey der k.k. Hofkapelle angestellt gewesen - daß er mit derselben sowohl hier Orts bey den Hofkirchendiensten und Hofkammermusiken, …
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34Inscribed by Florence NightingaleNotes on Nursing.London, 1860.
€ 28,000.00Author's presentation copy, inscribed to the reformer Joseph Adshead (1800-61) on the half title: "Joseph Adshead Esq / from his obliged friend / Florence Nightingale / July 1860 / Please do observe Pages 209-211".
Florence Nightingale and Joseph Adshead made their acquaintance through the Liberal politician and manufacturer Richard Cobden …
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35Mi’kmaq pictographic script: one of the few surviving sets, owned by Henry Wadsworth LongfellowBuch das gut, enthaltend den Katechismus, Betrachtung. [With:] Buch das …Vienna, 1866.
€ 18,500.00Only edition of the Christian catechism, meditations and hymnal for the Mi'kmaq, a First Nations People of Nova Scotia, printed in their hieroglyphic writing (also known as Suckerfish script): the first and long the only books ever published in this writing developed by the French Jesuit Chretien Leclercq in the 17th century, apparently based on …
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36"But behold the advantage of art; painting endures"Autograph letter signed ("Paul Cézanne").Aix, April 1876.
€ 25,000.00To Camille Pissarro ("Mon cher Pissarro"), on all the current news of post-Impressionist circles. Cézanne speaks frequently of business gossip: Monet has sold a painting for a large sum ("la Japonaise de Monet c'était vendu 2 mille francs"), and Manet has yet again faced rejection from the Salon, to much furor ("Il parait d'ápres les journaux …
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37A gentleman's fancyPhotograph album.Possibly Sweden, ca. 1870s.
€ 4,500.00A playful photograph album and scrapbook, perhaps a bit transgressive, from the lively fin du siècle. A pasted-in ticket to the Tuileries and a menu from the Grand Hotel de Rome in Berlin perhaps place the creator(s) on a trip through Europe, or they were may simply have been avid collectors of hotel cards and menus. The majority of the album, however, …
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38Original Edison pen and ink sketch of telegraph circuitsTwo original sketches. [With:] Autograph letter signed ("Thos. A. Edison").Newark, NJ, 20 Jan 1879.
€ 18,000.00Two original Edison design sketches of a telegraph circuit, sent to Charles Sumners Wentworth with a letter (signed, and in Edison's own hand) discussing telegraph design: "Without I know what the resistance of your sounder is it would be hard to say how many cells would be required. I should think about 8 would do the business if they are 3 ohm …
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39Illustrated Urdu translation of the 1001 Nights in prose, done for the Naval Kishor PressHazar dastan [The Thousand Tales].Lucknow, 1890.
€ 12,500.00Lavishly illustrated lithographed edition: a prose Urdu translation of the Thousand and One Nights from Naval Kishor's press, perhaps the most famous Indian press of the 19th century. The translator, Hamid 'Ali Khan (1860-1918), was a barrister, colonial administrator, and poet whose edition of the Nights appears to have received little critical …
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40Limited issue, signed by the authorThe Picture of Dorian Gray.London, New York & Melbourne, 1891.
€ 35,000.00First edition of Wilde's only novel, signed limited issue: number 40 of 250 large-paper copies of the de luxe issue on Van Gelder handmade laid paper, signed "Oscar Wilde". The title-page and half title were designed by Charles Ricketts, who provided illustrations and cover designs for many of Wilde's works. This luxury issue is the corrected second …
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41First edition, first stateDer Judenstaat. Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage.Leipzig & Vienna, 1896.
€ 12,500.00First 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] …
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42Inscribed by the authorDer Kaiser und die Hexe.Berlin, May colophon: August 1900.
€ 15,000.00First book edition of this verse play in which Hofmannsthal attempted to allegorize the profession of the poet. Number 73 of 200 numbered de luxe copies printed on Van Gelder handmade laid paper with the lnsel watermark. Inscribed by the author to the Göttingen historian of literature, Otto Deneke (1875-1956): "Hugo von Hofmannsthal. / Göttingen, …
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43The beginning of expressionism in Vienna: test prints with pencil correctionsDie träumenden Knaben.Vienna, 1908.
€ 28,000.00Wide-margined test prints of all the colour lithographs from Kokoschka's first graphic work, a children's book that the Wiener Werkstätte commissioned in 1906. While their suitability for young readers might be doubtful, both text and illustrations broke new ground: Kokoschka rejected the Jugendstil tradition of his teachers' generation, and although …
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44One of the last photos of Klimt, inscribed to his sitter Johanna StaudePortrait photograph signed and inscribed.Vienna, 1917.
€ 85,000.00The half-length portrait shows the 55-year-old artist outside his studio in Vienna's Feldmühlgasse. The photograph is inscribed and signed by Klimt on the backing card: "Wien 1917 / Frau Johanna Staude zur freundlichen Erinnerung von Gustav Klimt" ("Vienna 1917 / For Mrs. Johanna Staude in fond memory from Gustav Klimt"). The photograph by Moritz …
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45Mao Zedong's fundamental text on guerrilla warfare - an enormously rare signed exampleKang-Ri you-ji zhan-zheng di yi-ban wen-ti [Common Problems in the Anti-Japanese …Yan'an, 1938.
€ 350,000.00The first appearance in book form of this fundamental text on the use of unconventional warfare in modern conflict, with a rare early signature of Mao and compelling provenance.
One of the most consequential modern books, the ideas in Mao's 1937 pamphlet On Guerrilla Warfare have been a constant influence in a post-colonial world. Tactics that …
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46Dalí's ballet: "le tumulte orageux et visceral"Autograph manuscript signed ("Salvador Dalí").Monte Carlo, 21 Apr 1938.
€ 22,500.00Dalí's concept statement for "Tristan Fou", in the artist's own hand. In 1938, Salvador Dalí composed "Tristan Fou / Espectacle paranoiaque" as a reinterpretation of Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde". Based on the medieval tragic romance of Tristan and Isolde, Dalí's ballet, according to his manuscript, featured music by R. Wagner and "Federic …
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47From the creator of "Madeline"[Original mock-up copy of Parsley].New York, likely 1948.
€ 7,500.00The pre-publication artist's design copy, predating the first edition and unique. Written and illustrated by the Austrian-American creator of the internationally beloved "Madeline" children's series, this copy of "Parsley" shows the final stages of the book design process. Each piece of text and each illustration has been cut and pasted into place …
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48"I haven't written because I have fallen in love"Autograph letter signed twice ("Jim").Burbank, CA, 19 May 1954.
€ 38,000.00To his girlfriend Barbara Glenn ("Darling"). Dean naughtily commences his letter with potentially heart-breaking lines, "I haven't written because I have fallen in love. It had to happen sooner or later", although immediately reveals the subject of his affection: "It's not a very good picture of him, but that's 'Cisco the Kid', the new member of …
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49With upside-down Thomas Jefferson postage stampAutograph postcard signed ("Bro Malcolm").Battle Creek, Michigan, 12 May 1955 postmark.
€ 17,500.00A note to Roy Munford and his family in Jersey City: "As Salaam Alaikum. Greetings from Battle Creek. This Teaching is fast-spreading every where".
On the verso is a photograph showing the entrance to the Youth Building in the Irving Park neighborhood of Battle Creek, Michigan.
On 24 January 1965, just weeks before being murdered, Malcolm …
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50Signed and inscribed by Martin Luther King Jr.Original photograph boldly signed and inscribed "Best Wishes to Mr. & …No place, 1956/1957.
€ 20,000.00Rare vintage glossy photograph of King sitting in a half profile pose to his left in a sharp suit and tie, signed and inscribed in fountain pen, "Best Wishes to Mr. & Mrs. Ken Browne, From Martin L. King". The reverse bears the photographer's credit stamp of Arthur Freeman of Montgomery, Alabama, and a typed collector's notation indicating that …