Guido Craveri (Lugano) in association with Harmers Auctions SA (Lugano)

(29.5 cm), [152] pp., [4] pp. colour plates, text illustrations. 413 lots. (Estimates printed in catalogue.) Publisher’s printed wrappers. - Library of books on the sciences, art and architecture (including fortification), and Savonaroliana, assembled by Max Favia del Core (1927-1994), or from the ancestral library of his wife, Maria Ludovica Borromeo Arese. “In the science section, the most remarkable group was that of six Galileo first editions, including his privately printed pamphlet on the ‘operazione del compasso geometrico’ 1606 (sixty copies only) which fetched Sw.fr 130,000. Il Saggiatore and Dialogo also made twice their estimate… The afternoon ‘art and architecture’ session was particularly lively… Some albums of original drawings did well, with institutions like the Getty showing discreet interest… The remarkable Savonarola section opened with a manuscript of Pico della Mirandola’s Life of Savonarola [lot 338] and included an amazing number of Florentine incunables… The ‘Predica dell’ arte del ben morire’ of 1496 fetched Sw.fr 23,000, the 1500 version by another printer made 16,000, and its complement, the ‘Regole del ben vivere’ [1498] went for Sw.fr 11,000, all well above estimate” (from a saleroom report in The Book Collector, Autumn 1995, pp.386-388). ¶ Annotated copy. No Price list.