Books and Manuscripts

Il Ponte Auction House has always kept its attention towards the collecting of manuscripts and rare books high so much so to inaugurate in 2017 a dedicated department which, in the span of a few years, has caught an ever cultured and curious collecting.

The auction house has decided to maintain a broad vision of the market for this sector too, with eclectic awards in which there can be found manuscripts, inculabulum, first editions, autographs, atlas and maps, but also 19th century artist's books, ancient classic texts and historical curiosities. Successful the strategy of favouring quality and rarity of the goods proposed at auction, to attract a productive participation on behalf of important private collectors and foreign audiences.

The Books and Manuscripts department starts the new year with excellent results as demonstrated by the sale held on the 25th January 2022: with a turnover of € 650,000, 160% increase by value, and 94% of lots sold. From antiquity to the modern age, the auction was characterized by a frenzied rhythm of bids. Thanks to the significant participation of foreign customers and private collectors, both auction sessions confirmed the sound health of the book sector.

As predicted by the experts, the top lots were the exquisite 1477 version of Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia (lot 29, € 93,750), followed by the richly illustrated seventeenth-century atlas by Blaeu and Janssonius (lot 156, € 56,250) and Salvador Dali's revised version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (lot 269, € 56,250). The wide variety and extraordinary quality of the works presented, resulted in a vibrant list of sale successes: which includes one of the most detailed lunar maps ever made by Cornelio Malvasia (lot 216, € 20,000), Francesco Borromini's architectural illustrations (lot 200, € 15,000) and the famous second edition of Galileo Galilei's Dialogue (lot 204, € 12,500).

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Il Ponte opens the second half of 2021 with a new departmental record for Books and Manuscripts: € 600,000, 86% of lots sold, and 162% revaluation of base prices. The top lot of the sale is the Imitatio Christi by Thomas A Kempis (dated 1472). It is the most printed religious text in the world after the Bible, which on this occasion reached its best international performance reaching the figure of € 75,000 (€ 93,750 plus buyers premium).

ArtsLife | October 2021

What people say about us Although we are only at the beginning, 2021 is already a record year for Il Ponte. Yesterday's Books and Manuscripts sale ended with € 500,000 turnover (rights included), 94% of sold lots and 162% of increase on the sales value: a healthy sector, we said, which is confirmed by the performances of items as the Atlante Veneto by Vincenzo Coronelli (€ 20,000), the Depero futurista by Fortunato Depero (€ 18,125) and the large Neuer Atlas - Atlas Novus curated by Johann Baptist Homann (€ 11,875).

Exibart | January 2021

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DANTE ALIGHIERI

Commedia. Venice: Vindelino da Spira, 1477.
An excellent and fascinating copy with wide margins of this edition of the Comedy in a Bedford binding and with important provenance.

Estimate € 40.000 - 60.000

Sold € 93.750

KEMPIS, Thomas A

"Imitatio Christi". [Augusta:]: Günther Zainer, (before 5 June 1473).

Estimate € 40.000 - 60.000

Sold € 93.750

DALÌ, Salvador

"Biblia Sacra Vulgatae Editionis" Milan: 1967.

Estimate € 40.000 - 60.000

Sold € 56.250

BLAEU, Willem;
BLAEU, Joan;
Johannes JANSSONIUS

Theatrum Orbis Terrarum sive Novus Atlas. Amsterdam: Blaeu (vols. 1-3) e Janssonius (vol. 4), 1644-1646.
An excellent copy in contemporary colouring bound in Dutch vellum of this atlas from the golden age of Dutch cartography: one of the finest editions ever published.

Estimate € 30.000 - 50.000

Sold € 56.250

DALI, Salvador;
William SHAKESPEARE

Romeo e Giulietta. Milano: Rizzoli, 1975.
One of the 35 ad personam copies printed on hand-made paper and complete with the original gouache that reproduces the third lithograph contained in the book.

Estimate € 25.000 - 35.000

Sold € 56.250

BLAEU, Willem e BLAEU, Joan

"Coppia di carte geografiche". Amsterdam: 1608-1624?

Estimate € 4.000 - 6.000

Sold € 21.250

MALVASIA, Cornelio; MONTANARI, Geminiano

Ephemerides novissimae motuum coelestium. Modena: Cassiani, 1662.
First edition complete with the renown lunar map drawn by Geminiano Montanari, among the most precise ever delineated until then.

Estimate € 8.000 - 12.000

Sold € 20.000

[BIBLIA]

"Incipit epistola sancti Hieronymi ad Paulinum presbyterum". Venice: 1480.

Estimate € 5.000 - 8.000

Sold € 17.500

BORROMINI, Francesco

Opera del caval. Francesco Boromino cavata da suoi Originali cioè la Chiesa e Fabrica della Sapienza di Roma con le vedute in prospettiva. Roma: Sebastiano Giannini, 1720. [E:] - Opus architectonicum equitis Francisci Boromini ex eiusdem exemplaribus petitum; oratorium nempè, aedesque Romanae RR. PP. Congregationis Oratorii S. Philippi Nerii. Roma: Sebastiano Giannini, 1725.

Estimate € 10.000 - 15.000

Sold € 15.000

PIRANESI, Giovanni Battista

Antichità d'Albano e di Castel Gandolfo [WITH:] - Descrizione e disegno dell'Emissario del Lago Albano [WITH:] - Di due spelonche ornate dagli antichi alla Riva de Lago Albano. Rome: [1762-1764].

Estimate € 6.000 - 9.000

Sold € 15.000

CERVANTES, Miguel de

"El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha". Madrid: Ibarra, 1780.

Estimate € 10.000 - 15.000

Sold € 12.500

GALILEI, Galileo

Dialogo. Florence [but Naples]: [s.e.], 1710.
A good copy in fine contemporary red morocco of the second edition of the most famous and courageous work by Galileo which earned him the condemnation of the Holy Office for his theses against the immobility of the Earth.

Estimate € 2.000 - 3.000

Sold € 12.500

[GRECIA]

"Archipelago Charts. Greece and Turkey". London: Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty, 1843-56.

Estimate € 200 - 300

Sold € 11.250

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Books and Manuscripts

Il Ponte Auction House has always kept its attention towards the collecting of manuscripts and rare books high so much so to inaugurate in 2017 a dedicated department which, in the span of a few years, has caught an ever cultured and curious collecting.

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