Filling much of a full-page advertisement in ATG No 2284 for the Pierre Bergé/Sotheby’s (24/20.5/17% buyer’s premium) sale in Paris on April 26 of books and manuscripts from the library of Jean A Bonna was the star turn – a stunning copy of Galileo’s Discorsi et Dimostrazioni matematiche of 1638.
The only known copy of Elzevir of Leiden’s first state issue, it is the dedication copy and one that was superbly bound in red morocco gilt in the ‘Fanfare’ style by Le Gascon for the Comte de Noailles.
The Galileo is estimated at €700,000-900,000, but pitched at a slightly more modest €40,000- 60,000 is a 1493, first French edition of Boccaccio’s celebrated collection of biographies devoted exclusively to women from mythology, legend and history, …des nobles et cleres dames.