Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd (London)

(27 cm), 323 (1) pp., illustrations (some in colour). 326 lots. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - “Leonhart Fuchs’s copiously annotated copy of Galen Opera Basel 1529, previously unrecorded, did not escape anyone’s notice and was sold to a telephone bidder for £60,000 against an estimate of £15,000 to £20,000. An extraordinary copy of Galileo Sidereus Nuncius Venice 1610, the earliest issue, printed before the lunar plates (and so technically imperfect), was virtually untrimmed in the original wrappers, the star maps wholly intact; it had been bequeathed by Marquard Gude [1635-1689] to the church of St Mary, Rendsburg, which now sold it for £150,000 (Stuart Rose)” (from a saleroom report in The Book Collector, Autumn 2005, pp.410-411). Contains property of Charles Muir and the interior decorator Lady Victoria Waymouth (1947-2004). ¶ Unmarked copy.