The purchase of a Galileo book for more than £60,000 was AbeBooks' most expensive sale of the year so far. It is the highest priced item to sell via our marketplace since A Natural History of Birds sold for £125,000 in 2015.
Aside from Galileo's thoughts on mathematics, this top 10 list includes several 20th century classics that you all know, sheet music from one of the world's greatest composers, some notebooks from a World War II codebreaker and a library book filled with huge illustrations of birds.
The Top 10:
Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche by Galileo, £63,250
A 1638 first edition of Galileo's last and greatest work, the "Discorsi" (Discourses on Two New Sciences), which is considered to be the first modern physics textbook and the foundation of modern mechanics. The two new sciences that the book describes are the engineering science of strength of materials and the mathematical science of kinematics - the physics of bodies in motion subject to the force of gravity. One of the great science books ever produced, this copy is bound in contemporary vellum. In very good to near-fine condition throughout.
Discours de la Méthode by Descartes, £25,000
This is a famous philosophy book first published in 1637 but this copy is special due to its artwork produced by Victor Vasarely (1906-1997), a French-Hungarian artist described as the father of the Op Art movement. He used geometric shapes and colourful graphics to create illusions of spatial depth. He was heavily influenced by Bauhaus design, the works of Vasily Kandinskii, and Constructivism. Vasarely experimented with surrealist and abstract expressionist styles during the 1940s before arriving at his hallmark checkerboards. One of only 15 copies reserved for Vasarely, which he signed.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, £21,500
A signed first edition owned by Rand's secretary, who typed parts of the Atlas Shrugged manuscript. This 1957 novel was Rand's fourth and final novel, and is considered to be her magnum opus.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, £18,500
A complete set of British first editions - all seven books in first issue dust wrappers with no repairs. The first five books of this classic series were published by Geoffrey Bles. The final two were published by The Bodley Head. They all contain the marvelous illustrations of Pauline Baynes. The series began with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in 1950, and concluded with The Last Battle in 1956.
The Natural and Civil History of the French Dominions in North and South America by Thomas Jefferys, £18,500
A 1760 first edition of an important book on geography and cartography. Two parts in one volume. Contains 18 fine engraved folding maps and plans, and bears the engraved bookplate of Amos Binney (1803-1847), founder and president of the Boston Society of Natural History. In part one, Jefferys describes Canada and Louisiana. He includes detailed plans of Quebec, Montreal and New Orleans. In part II Jefferys describes the West Indies and South America, with maps of Quadaloupe and Grenada.
A Collection of Beethoven String Quartets, £15,600
Sheet music. Opp. 18, 59, 74, 95, 127, 130-133, and 135 in first and early editions. This set was begun in 1798, composed primarily in 1799 and 1800, and published in 1801 with a dedication to Prince Lobkowitz, a Bohemian aristocrat and a patron of Beethoven.
A Collection of Notebooks by Max Newman, £15,000
Newman (1897-1984) was a British mathematician and a pioneer in modern computer science. During the World War II, he joined the government code and cypher school at Bletchley Park where he worked with Alan Turing. From 1945 to 1964 Newman was the Fielden professor of mathematics at Manchester University, where he established the Royal Society Computing Machine Laboratory, which produced the first working stored program electronic computer in 1948. The collection features 29 items, including three printed books, one manuscript notebook, and one autograph album.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum, £12,250
A 1900 first edition in fine condition. A beautiful copy bound in the publisher's light green cloth stamped in red and green. All 24 colour plates are present.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, £11,110
A 1925 first edition, first printing in a third state dust jacket. Fitzgerald's masterpiece was a flop in his lifetime, not becoming popular until several years after his death. The scarce jacket is tattered with small chips out of the head and tail of the spine and one at top edge, and also damp staining in several places.
The Birds of America by John James Audubon, - £10,350
An 1870 former library copy of this beautiful book - 500 plates across seven volumes. Includes a copy of The Quadrupeds of North America, also by Audubon, with 106 of 155 plates. Audubon's masterpiece was first published as a series in sections between 1827 and 1838, in Edinburgh and London. Six of the birds feature are now extinct.
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