The June auction promises to be particularly appealing for collectors of scientific books thanks to the presence of a large section of works on machinery and early technology. Among the many works in the catalogue, the most important and rare include volumes by Valturio, Agricola, Vegezio, Biringucci, Veranzio, Branca, Zonca and Ramelli, in short the great masterpieces of the sixteenth and seventeenth century on this topic.

De re militari by Roberto Valturio (1405-1475) from 1472, dedicated to Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, is rightly considered the first book on modern technology. The richly illustrated work boasts the title of the first book with scientific illustrations made for informational rather than decorative or religious purposes” (Jeremy Norman, History of Information). The example on auction is also presented with excellent contemporary colouring. “…The illustrations are the first true Italian book illustrations, probably after designs by Matteo de Pasti, the medallist and pupil of Alberti. They were preceeded in Italy only by a blockbook […] and the 1467 Rome edition of Torquemada which contains a series of rather crude woodcuts probably designed under German influence” (Printing and the Mind of Man no. 10). Furthermore, it was the first book to be printed in Verona and the second Italian book to contain illustrations.
The book was widely distributed: Louis XI of France, Matthias Corvinusn the King of Hungary, Federico da Montefeltro the Duke of Urbino and Lorenzo de’ Medici all ownedcopies. Even Leonardo da Vinci, at the service of Cesare Borgia as head engineer and military architect, used it when designing his military apparatus.
Eleven years later, 13 February 1483 to be precise, the Bonino de’ Bonini printing presses in Verona (famous for Dante’s 1487 illustrated Comedy) produced a second Latin edition, followed only four days later by the first edition in the vernacular edited by Paolo Ramusio. Both editions will be present in June’s auction.
The Latin edition shows excellent contemporary colouring.Following in Valturio’s footsteps, the school of Italian engineers bloomed a century later between the sixteenth and seventeenth century. In 1556, the first edition of the treaty De re metallica by Georg Agricola (1494-1555) was published posthumously. It dealt with the extraction and processing of minerals, materials needed for the constructions of engineering and war machines. The text, with its excellent illustrations, remained valid for almost two centuries with editions released in German and Italian as well. In 1588, Agostino Ramelli (1531-1608) published Le diverse et artificiose machine in Paris, which presented various automatic, hydraulic and pneumatic machines for work, war and domestic use, all of his own invention. The work had significant influence on the development of European mechanics.

We cannot omit Machinae novae by Fausto Veranzio (1551-1617), published in Venice in approximately 1616. The treaty included 49 technological innovations accompanied by illustrated figures and a description in Italian, Latin, German, Spanish and French. The author, who spent several years at the court of Emperor Rudolf II, was a friend of Kepler and Tycho Brahe, scientists who were particularly interested in scientific discoveries. His “Homo Volans” gave the first printed depiction of a parachute. The rarity of the work, which has rarely come up at auction, derives prevalently from the fact that it was published at the author’s own expense with very limited circulation.

These are only the most famous examples that will be auctioned alongside numerous other scientific and technological books in the summer auction.
by Annette Pozzo

THE DEPARTMENT OF BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS