Sotheby & Co. (London)

Two volumes (25.5 cm), I (7 June 1971): (2) 106 (4) pp., [4] leaves of plates (inserted after pp.46, 60, 96, 100), text illustrations. Lots numbered 1-152. II (9 November 1971): 161 (3) pp. (some folding), folding colour frontispiece, [9] leaves plates (inserted after pp.68, 104, 106, 108, 112, 116, 140, 152, 156), text illustrations. Lots numbered 153-366. Typed List of prices realised and buyers’ names (Part I); printed List (Part II). Uniform publisher’s printed green boards. - Fine collection of pre-1641 travel and exploration, containing a manuscript of Sir John Mandevilles’ travels in English (extracted from the Clopton Manuscript, a devotional miscellany, c. 1403-1425; now Princeton University, R.H. Taylor Ms 10), a 1520 manuscript by Marco Polo, an early 15th-century manuscript of Chaucer’s Treatise on the astrolabe (ex-E.P. Goldschmidt; now Toshiyuki Takamiya Collection, Japan), the Basel Columbus Letter of 1494, and important maps and atlases. A magnificent English manuscript map of Guiana of c. 1596-1599 was bought by the Duke of Northumberland. Penrose commenced collecting in 1926 and had sold books previously at Sotheby’s in 1934 and at Parke-Bernet in 1945-1947. Percy Muir, “Private Libraries, VII: Boies Penrose” in The Times Literary Supplement, 17 September 1938, p.604; cf. Donald C. Dickinson, Dictionary of American Book Collectors (New York 1986), pp.256-257; William H. Helfand, in Grolier 2000: a further Grolier Club biographical retrospective (New York 2000), pp.284-286. ¶ Unmarked copies.