The Aldine Collection of the Late Sir Robert Horton
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The Aldine Collection of the late Sir Robert Horton, Aldine Collection of the late Sir Robert Horton, The Bonhams Montpelier Street Knightsbridge, London, Tuesday 12 November 2013 Knightsbridge London SW7 1HH +44 (0) 20 7393 3900 +44 (0) 20 7393 3905 fax 20753 The Aldine Collection of the late Sir Robert Horton Tuesday 12 November 2013 International Auctioneers and Valuers - bonhams.com Knightsbridge, London The Aldine Collection of the late Sir Robert Horton Tuesday 12 November 2013 at 11am Knightsbridge, London Bonhams Enquiries Please see back of catalogue Montpelier Street London for important notice to bidders Knightsbridge Matthew Haley London SW7 1HH Luke Batterham Illustrations bonhams.com Simon Roberts Front cover: Lot 30 Claire Wilkins Back cover: Lot 150 Viewing +44 (0)20 7393 3828 Friday 8 November 9am to 4.30pm +44 (0)20 7393 3834 Live online bidding is Sunday 10 November 11am to 3pm +44 (0)20 7393 3879 fax available for this sale Please email [email protected] Monday 11 November 9am to [email protected] 4.30pm with “Live bidding” in the subject line 48 hours before Carole Park the auction to register for Bids +44 (0)20 7393 3810 +44 (0) 20 7447 7448 this service. +44 (0) 20 7447 7401 fax To bid via the internet Consultant please visit www.bonhams.com John Collins +44 (0)20 7393 3828 Please provide details of the lots on which you wish to place bids Shipping and Collections at least 24 hours prior to the sale. Leor Cohen +44 (0) 20 7393 3841 New bidders must also provide proof of identity when submitting Customer Services Monday to Friday 8.30am to 6pm bids. Failure to do this may result +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 in your bids not being processed. Bidding by telephone will only be accepted on a lot with a lower estimate in excess of £400. Sale Number: 20753 Catalogue: £18 including catalogue of Books, Atlases, Manuscripts and Photographs Bonhams 1793 Limited Bonhams 1793 Ltd Directors Bonhams UK Ltd Directors Registered No. 4326560 Robert Brooks Chairman, Colin Sheaf Chairman, Jonathan Baddeley, Andrew McKenzie, Simon Mitchell, Jeff Muse, Registered Office: Montpelier Galleries Colin Sheaf Deputy Chairman, Antony Bennett, Matthew Bradbury, Mike Neill, Charlie O’Brien, Giles Peppiatt, Montpelier Street, London SW7 1HH Malcolm Barber Group Managing Director, Harvey Cammell, Simon Cottle, Andrew Currie, Peter Rees, Julian Roup, Iain Rushbrook, Matthew Girling CEO UK and Europe, David Dallas, Paul Davidson, Jean Ghika, John Sandon, Tim Schofield, +44 (0) 20 7393 3900 Geoffrey Davies, Jonathan Horwich, James Charles Graham-Campbell, Miranda Grant, Veronique Scorer, James Stratton, +44 (0) 20 7393 3905 fax Knight, Patrick Meade, Caroline Oliphant, Robin Hereford, Asaph Hyman, Roger Tappin, Shahin Virani, David Williams, Hugh Watchorn. Charles Lanning, Camilla Lombardi, Michael Wynell-Mayow. Fergus Lyons, Paul Maudsley, Gordon McFarlan, Important Notices For explanation of any asterisked symbols that may appear in catalogues, please see the notice entitled ‘VAT’ at the end of the catalogue. Please note that lots comprising printed books, unframed maps and bound manuscripts are not liable to VAT on the Buyer’s Premium. Lots are sold with all faults, imperfections and errors of description, but if on collation any described printed book in this catalogue is found to lack text or illustrations, the same may be returned to Bonhams within 20 days of the sale; the unstated defect to be detailed in writing. This shall not apply in the case of un-named items, blanks, half-titles or advertisements, nor to damage to bindings, stains, tears or other defects unless these result in loss to text or illustration. Atlases, maps and prints are sold not subject to return, as are items sold as collections, association and extra-illustrated copies, or as bindings. Collection and Storage Buyers’ accounts are due for settlement at the end of each sale and it our hope that clients will collect at the same time or certainly within 48 hours of the sale finishing. All other sold lots will remain in Bonhams Knightsbridge Books department for 21 days. Any items not collected after 21 days may be removed to our warehouse in Park Royal where storage charges will apply at the rate of £2 per day per lot, attracting a removal charge estimated at £5 + vat. Buyers can contact the Book Department Stock Manager Leor Cohen to discuss any collection, storage or shipping concerns. Leor Cohen Tel: +44 (0) 20 7393 3841 Email: [email protected] Sir Robert Horton (1939-2011) Sir Robert Horton, BSc, St. Andrews; MS, MIT; FRSA was an energetic and outspoken businessman who spent 35 years working for BP, culminating in his appointment as Chief Executive and Chairman of the Board from 1990 to 1992. He was Chairman of Railtrack from 1993 to 1999 and led the organisation through the early years of its existence. Sir Robert was a keen supporter of the arts, education and public libraries. He was Chairman of the Tate Gallery Foundation 1988-1992, Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts, and from 1990 to 1995 Chancellor of the University of Kent, where his portrait by Jonathan Trowell hangs in the Senate Building. He was also a Governor of The King’s School, Canterbury 1984-2005. A long-standing supporter and benefactor of the Bodleian Library, Sir Robert also acted as Chairman of the Libraries Development Board. Having served as an external director of Emerson Electric in St. Louis, Missouri, Sir Robert facilitated a gift to the Bodleian Library of $1m; a seminar room will be named after him in the renovated Weston Library of the Bodleian. Sir Robert Horton’s Aldine collecting began in the 1980s when he acquired a collection from Barrie Kaye, who continued to help him add to his collection over nearly three decades. Sir Robert created what is quite possibly the most comprehensive private Aldine library in the British Isles. 1 5 4 | Bonhams The Aldine Collection of the late Sir Robert Horton Tuesday 12 November 2013 at 11am Please note that this sale is subject to the Conditions of Sale and other Notices at the beginning and end of this catalogue, and any saleroom notices that may be posted. Your attention is drawn to the notices at the beginning of the catalogue regarding the removal of purchases. 1• POLITIANUS (ANGELUS) Omnia opera [edited by Alessandro Sarti], bound in 2 vol., FIRST EDITION, 452 leaves (second volume from Li), 38 lines and headline, Roman and Greek type (with a few words in Hebrew), guide letters, first volume with red and blue ink decoration on title, alternate red and blue capitals, and ruled in red, light dampstains to some margins; second volume with a few single wormholes (mostly confined to margins), first volume later blindstamped calf, rebacked and recornered, morocco-backed box; second volume early vellum, refurbished, marbled board box [Ahmanson-Murphy 26; Renouard 17:4; BMC V 559; Goff P886; GW M34727; HC 13218*; ISTC ip00886000], folio (315 x 205mm., and 269 x 190mm.), [colophon:] Venice, Aldus the Elder, July 1498 £3,000 - 4,000 €3,600 - 4,800 First edition of one of the earliest attempts at a collected edition of a modern author. Politianus died in 1494, and the work which he had been working on was edited for publication by the Bolognese humanist Alessandro Sarti. “Cette rare édition, l’une des plus belles qui soient sorties de l’imprimerie Aldine” (Renouard). Provenance: first volume Étienne Baluze (1630-1718), French scholar, inscribed on title “Stephanus Baluzius Tutelensis”; George Abrams, with booklabel. 2• FIRMICUS MATERNUS (JULIUS) Astronomicorum libri octo integri, Part 1 only (of 2), 174 leaves (of 184, *1 and 9 other leaves supplied in facsimile), 39 lines and headlline, Roman letter, 3-, 4-, 6- and 10-line initial spaces with printed guide letters, astronomical woodcut diagrams and tables in text, dampstain in lower gutter margins throughout (the first and last 20 or so leaves repaired to varying degrees, not affecting text), some early ink marginalia, later vellum over boards, soiled [Ahmanson-Murphy 34; Renouard 20:3; BMC V, 560; Goff F191; HC *14559; ISTC if00191000], folio (330 x 210mm.), Venice, Aldus the Elder, June 1499 £1,000 - 1,500 €1,200 - 1,800 The first part of scriptores astronomici veteres, comprising Firmicus Maternus’ Mattheseos libri VIII. The second part of this important collection of astronomical texts was printed in October of the same year, containing Marcus Manilius’s Astronomicon and three Greek texts by Aratus, Theon and Procius Diadochus. See illustration overleaf. 3• MARTIALIS (MARCUS VALERIUS) [Epigrammata], lacking final blank &8, early manuscript name “MARTI” on title, and opening initial supplied on A2, oxidised holes with loss of some letters (additional facsimile of title and A2 bound in), early ink marginalia, browning, modern calf gilt [Ahmanson-Murphy 47; Renouard 30:7; Adams M689], 8vo, [colophon:] Venice, Aldus the Elder, December 1501 £1,000 - 1,500 €1,200 - 1,800 First Aldine edition, and only the fifth Aldine work to be printed in Italics. 4• LUCANUS (MARCUS ANNAEUS) Civilis belli, faint ink underlinings on a few pages, thin trail of worming in blank corner of 6 leaves, modern vellum [Ahmanson-Murphy 56; Renourd 33:3; Adams L1557], 8vo, [colophon:] Venice, Aldus the Elder, April 1502 £1,000 - 1,500 €1,200 - 1,800 The Aldine Collection of the late Sir Robert Horton | 5 2 7 5• POETAE [Poetae veteres Christiani], vol. 2 (of 3), first issue with “Cum gratia...” on Pi8r, Aldine device on Pi8v, text in Latin and Greek, without final blank titled “Poetae christiani” in ink on upper margin of title (shaved at lower margin), later vellum [Ahmanson-Murphy 58; Renouard 24:1, 39:17; Adams P1685], small 4to (210 x 153mm.), [colophon:] Venice, Aldus the Elder, January 1501 [but preface: June 1502] £2,000 - 3,000 €2,400 - 3,600 The first edition of a collection of early Christian poetry, described by Renouard as a “collection infiniment rare et precieuse”.