Science 1600-1800
See also : Astronomy Physics Instrument and equipment Books 17th century books Ancient England
Chronology : 1680-1699 1700-1709
Chronology : 1680-1699 1700-1709
1613 The Garden of Eichstätt
2016 SOLD for £ 1.93M including premium
The plant is the basic element of the apothecary. Medical universities maintain gardens to analyse their features. Naturalists are then interested in their variety and undertake classifications. The first flower gardens designed for sole pleasure appear around 1600.
The prince-bishop of Eichstätt is passionate about flowers. His garden has eight sections or terraces where plants are grouped according to their origin. He entrusts the maintenance of the garden and the drawings of the plants to a botanist-apothecary based in Nuremberg, Basilius Besler.
Besler prepares 366 plates with an average of three plants per page. They are classified by season and the reader can compare the phases of a plant including bulb, flower and fruit. The Hortus Eystettensis is issued in 300 copies in 1613, in a very large format 54 x 42 cm. The deluxe version is only printed on one side to avoid the shadow of the back, and hand colored. It may be the most expensive book of its time.
A few copies began circulating in Rome in the circle of the Accademia dei Lincei. This academy is one of the earliest scientific societies in the modern sense of that wording. Its goal is to understand nature from an objective observation. In 1611, the Accademia welcomes into its ranks Galileo and also Faber, the director of the papal botanical garden.
It was known that one of the last sets of uncolored plates of the Hortus Eystettensis was purchased for the use of Faber in 1617. We did not know more. It is probably this one that has just surfaced.
On July 13 in London, Christie's sells that deluxe copy, lot 173estimated £ 800K. It is complete of Besler's 366 plates, without the additional botanical text. Before it got its binding, this copy was supplemented with fifteen drawings and one print of a rare plant that was the pride of the garden of Cardinal Farnese. This 1619 dated plate is dedicated to Faber. The whole book was colored by a single hand.
Let us comment the considerable interest of the Roman Catholic aristocracy for flowers. The preparation of the Hortus Eystettensis is indeed contemporary to the artistic study of flowers executed throughout the summer of 1606 by Jan Brueghel from the incitement of the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's :
The prince-bishop of Eichstätt is passionate about flowers. His garden has eight sections or terraces where plants are grouped according to their origin. He entrusts the maintenance of the garden and the drawings of the plants to a botanist-apothecary based in Nuremberg, Basilius Besler.
Besler prepares 366 plates with an average of three plants per page. They are classified by season and the reader can compare the phases of a plant including bulb, flower and fruit. The Hortus Eystettensis is issued in 300 copies in 1613, in a very large format 54 x 42 cm. The deluxe version is only printed on one side to avoid the shadow of the back, and hand colored. It may be the most expensive book of its time.
A few copies began circulating in Rome in the circle of the Accademia dei Lincei. This academy is one of the earliest scientific societies in the modern sense of that wording. Its goal is to understand nature from an objective observation. In 1611, the Accademia welcomes into its ranks Galileo and also Faber, the director of the papal botanical garden.
It was known that one of the last sets of uncolored plates of the Hortus Eystettensis was purchased for the use of Faber in 1617. We did not know more. It is probably this one that has just surfaced.
On July 13 in London, Christie's sells that deluxe copy, lot 173estimated £ 800K. It is complete of Besler's 366 plates, without the additional botanical text. Before it got its binding, this copy was supplemented with fifteen drawings and one print of a rare plant that was the pride of the garden of Cardinal Farnese. This 1619 dated plate is dedicated to Faber. The whole book was colored by a single hand.
Let us comment the considerable interest of the Roman Catholic aristocracy for flowers. The preparation of the Hortus Eystettensis is indeed contemporary to the artistic study of flowers executed throughout the summer of 1606 by Jan Brueghel from the incitement of the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's :
1638 Mechanics and Motion
2017 SOLD for € 730K including premium
The work of Galileo Galilei, altogether experimental and mathematical, is extremely abundant and varied. Arriving in the fall of his life, the scientist is fully aware of the innovative importance of his theories. He gathers the most basic elements that he prepares in the form of dialogues offering to the reader a clear view of argument and counter-argument.
He begins with cosmology. Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, published in Florence in 1632, is placed on the following year in the Index of forbidden books. Galileo now suspect of heresy can no longer publish his works in a Catholic country. Fortunately this ban does not stop his activity.
The treatise on physics, titled Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze attenenti alla mecanica e i movimenti locali, is ready in 1636. The comte of Noailles transmits a copy to Elzevier who publishes the book at Leyden in 1638. The book is dedicated to Noailles.
The Discorsi includes Galileo's assertion that the distance traveled in a naturally accelerated movement is proportional to the square of time. Galileo supports this discovery by describing an experiment using a steel ball rolling in a groove. For three and a half centuries the learned world will question the possibility of such measurement with the required accuracy at the time of that demonstration. It is now taken for sure that this very real experiment, published for the first time in the Discorsi, was made by Galileo in 1604.
On April 26 in Paris (Drouot), the auction house Pierre Bergé et Associés in co-operation with Sotheby's sells the association copy of the comte de Noailles, lot 21 estimated € 700K. Some typographical errors are present but without the usual erratum, suggesting that this copy was the very first that was released from Elzevier's presses. It is assembled in a sumptuous 'à la fanfare' binding attributed to Le Gascon, certainly commissioned by Noailles.
Physics is less disruptive than astronomy for the religious authorities and the Discorsi will not be threatened. Much later Einstein would acknowledge Galileo rather than Newton as the father of modern physics and more generally of modern science.
He begins with cosmology. Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, published in Florence in 1632, is placed on the following year in the Index of forbidden books. Galileo now suspect of heresy can no longer publish his works in a Catholic country. Fortunately this ban does not stop his activity.
The treatise on physics, titled Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze attenenti alla mecanica e i movimenti locali, is ready in 1636. The comte of Noailles transmits a copy to Elzevier who publishes the book at Leyden in 1638. The book is dedicated to Noailles.
The Discorsi includes Galileo's assertion that the distance traveled in a naturally accelerated movement is proportional to the square of time. Galileo supports this discovery by describing an experiment using a steel ball rolling in a groove. For three and a half centuries the learned world will question the possibility of such measurement with the required accuracy at the time of that demonstration. It is now taken for sure that this very real experiment, published for the first time in the Discorsi, was made by Galileo in 1604.
On April 26 in Paris (Drouot), the auction house Pierre Bergé et Associés in co-operation with Sotheby's sells the association copy of the comte de Noailles, lot 21 estimated € 700K. Some typographical errors are present but without the usual erratum, suggesting that this copy was the very first that was released from Elzevier's presses. It is assembled in a sumptuous 'à la fanfare' binding attributed to Le Gascon, certainly commissioned by Noailles.
Physics is less disruptive than astronomy for the religious authorities and the Discorsi will not be threatened. Much later Einstein would acknowledge Galileo rather than Newton as the father of modern physics and more generally of modern science.
#Vente livres et manuscrits de la #bibliothèque de Jean A. Bonna le 26 avril 2017 en partenariat avec @Sothebys !
— PBA-Auctions (@PBA_Auctions) March 27, 2017
Plus d'infos à venir. pic.twitter.com/oMp0IiaV9U
1638 Aves ad vivum by Holsteyn
2015 SOLD for $ 850K including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
1687 Principia by NEWTON
Intro
Isaac Newton was the most brilliant scientific innovator of all time. Late in his life he laid down the rules that had guided his unprecedented method. One of these rules summarizes in a simple sentence how he created the modern physics : to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes.
One of his outstanding skills was to develop mathematical methods of high complexity to analyze and support his own physical theories. Even before he was 30, he compared the motion of the planets and the fall of the bodies. Essentially preoccupied with his own understanding of the mechanism of the universe, he published reluctantly.
One of his outstanding skills was to develop mathematical methods of high complexity to analyze and support his own physical theories. Even before he was 30, he compared the motion of the planets and the fall of the bodies. Essentially preoccupied with his own understanding of the mechanism of the universe, he published reluctantly.
1
2016 SOLD for $ 3.7M by Christie's
In 1684 in London, the scientists of the Royal Society challenged themselves to find the mathematical formulation of the law of motion of the planets described by Kepler. All failed. Halley visits Newton in Cambridge. He is stunned : Newton knows the solution but has lost his calculation notes. The orbital movement of a celestial body is an ellipse whose position of the other body is one of the foci.
The scientific stake is highly important and Halley manages to persuade Newton to disclose in their entirety his results concerning the law of universal gravitation. Edited and financed by Halley, Newton's Latin book entitled Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica is published in 1687 with the imprimatur of the Royal Society.
The book is difficult in the opinion of the author himself and the circulation probably did not exceed 300 copies but it is of such scientific importance that Halley and Newton took care of organizing their sale through booksellers. One of them named Samuel Smith is more specifically entrusted to the supply onto the Continent and receives about 50 copies for that purpose.
On December 14, 2016, Christie's sold one of the Smith 'Continental' presentation copies of the Principia for $ 3.7M from a lower estimate of $ 1M, lot 167. It is bound in its original unrestored morocco with gold and red inlays. The recipient is not identified.
The scientific stake is highly important and Halley manages to persuade Newton to disclose in their entirety his results concerning the law of universal gravitation. Edited and financed by Halley, Newton's Latin book entitled Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica is published in 1687 with the imprimatur of the Royal Society.
The book is difficult in the opinion of the author himself and the circulation probably did not exceed 300 copies but it is of such scientific importance that Halley and Newton took care of organizing their sale through booksellers. One of them named Samuel Smith is more specifically entrusted to the supply onto the Continent and receives about 50 copies for that purpose.
On December 14, 2016, Christie's sold one of the Smith 'Continental' presentation copies of the Principia for $ 3.7M from a lower estimate of $ 1M, lot 167. It is bound in its original unrestored morocco with gold and red inlays. The recipient is not identified.
Newton's deluxe "Principia" far surpasses $1 million @ChristiesBKS today, reaching $3.7 million! https://t.co/V3Bwq6aGsu pic.twitter.com/4xardPPXsM
— Fine Books Magazine (@finebooks) December 14, 2016
2
2013 SOLD for $ 2.5M by Christie's
A Royal copy of the Principia in its original morocco luxury binding was sold for $ 2.5M by Christie's on December 6, 2013 from a lower estimate of $ 400K, lot 170.
It had been presented by Halley to King James II, patron of the Royal Society. The Royal bindings from that reign are extremely rare.
It had been presented by Halley to King James II, patron of the Royal Society. The Royal bindings from that reign are extremely rare.
1694 Autograph Notes by Newton and Gregory
2021 SOLD for £ 1.7M by Christie's
The quest for the divine truth is the passion of Isaac Newton. He appreciates that his original edition of the Principia in 1687 still has some unanswered questions. He does not want being disturbed by outsiders. The book is in Latin and not in vernacular so that only great minds will comprehend it. Somebody said : "There goes a man who has written a book neither he nor anyone else can understand".
David Gregory was one of the happy few who were skilled to construct on the Principia. A professor of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, he was 17 years younger than Newton. He was the first to lecture on the Principia and began communicating with Newton. In 1691 Newton managed to have Gregory elected to the Savilian chair of astronomy at the University of Oxford.
In May 1694 Gregory visited Newton in Cambridge in a six day working session based on the proposed revisions to the Principia. Their combined autograph manuscripts are heavily revised working documents based on the texts under discussion from throughout the Principia.
A scrap of paper 22 x 19 cm escaped for an unknown reason the deposit of Gregory's papers at the Royal Institution in the 1860s. These one and a half pages in Latin include 39 lines in Newton’s hand, alongside 14 lines and two diagrams by Gregory. They deal with three topics : the force acting in the compression of liquids, the orbit of the comets, the build of conic figures on centripetal forces.
This unpublished scientific draft was sold for £ 1.7M from a lower estimate of £ 600K by Christie's on July 8, 2021, lot 22. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The tweets illustrate both sides of the paper.
David Gregory was one of the happy few who were skilled to construct on the Principia. A professor of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, he was 17 years younger than Newton. He was the first to lecture on the Principia and began communicating with Newton. In 1691 Newton managed to have Gregory elected to the Savilian chair of astronomy at the University of Oxford.
In May 1694 Gregory visited Newton in Cambridge in a six day working session based on the proposed revisions to the Principia. Their combined autograph manuscripts are heavily revised working documents based on the texts under discussion from throughout the Principia.
A scrap of paper 22 x 19 cm escaped for an unknown reason the deposit of Gregory's papers at the Royal Institution in the 1860s. These one and a half pages in Latin include 39 lines in Newton’s hand, alongside 14 lines and two diagrams by Gregory. They deal with three topics : the force acting in the compression of liquids, the orbit of the comets, the build of conic figures on centripetal forces.
This unpublished scientific draft was sold for £ 1.7M from a lower estimate of £ 600K by Christie's on July 8, 2021, lot 22. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The tweets illustrate both sides of the paper.
#AuctionUpdate A remarkable scientific manuscript by Sir Isaac Newton sold for £1,702,500, setting a new #WorldAuctionRecord for an #IsaacNewton manuscript. The manuscript contains autograph notes showing one of history's greatest scientific minds at work. □ □ pic.twitter.com/5CPmOmsiIO
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) July 8, 2021
Christie’s Presents Working Manuscript of Newton’s "Principia" https://t.co/1HAuHuCNoh via @finebooks @ChristiesInc
— Fine Books Magazine (@finebooks) June 1, 2021
1704 The Dispersion of Light
2015 SOLD for $ 1.33M including premium
In 1666 Isaac Newton aged 24 is working on improving the optics of the telescopes. His observation that the generation of the spectrum is related to the physical properties of light and not to those of the prism is one of the most important scientific advances of his time. He irrefutably demonstrates it by recomposing the white light though a second prism.
In 1672, he manages to suppress the chromatic aberration in the telescopes and reveals his findings at the Royal Society which publishes his lecture in its Philosophical Transactions.
The great scientist had a difficult temperament and did not accept contradiction. Robert Hooke, who had considered before Newton a wave property of light, is challenging some elements. The hatred between the two physicists is irremediable. Newton refuses to publish his book all along Hooke's lifetime.
Fortunately, Newton also has friends such as Edmund Halley who helps him to publish in 1687 his seminal book on the use of mathematics to model the gravitational properties of matter, the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
Opticks is finally printed and released in London in 1704, curiously without the author's name, the year after the death of Hooke. Newton added two discussions on curvilinear figures, in order to establish his priority over an ongoing work by Leibniz.
The copy of Opticks presented by Newton to Halley is estimated $ 400K for sale by Sotheby's in New York on December 4, lot 918. It is not dedicated but Halley wrote on the inside title page: "Luceo. Ex dono doctissimi authoris". Luceo, which does not mean anything in Latin, is a burst of enthusiasm based on Lux.
In 1672, he manages to suppress the chromatic aberration in the telescopes and reveals his findings at the Royal Society which publishes his lecture in its Philosophical Transactions.
The great scientist had a difficult temperament and did not accept contradiction. Robert Hooke, who had considered before Newton a wave property of light, is challenging some elements. The hatred between the two physicists is irremediable. Newton refuses to publish his book all along Hooke's lifetime.
Fortunately, Newton also has friends such as Edmund Halley who helps him to publish in 1687 his seminal book on the use of mathematics to model the gravitational properties of matter, the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
Opticks is finally printed and released in London in 1704, curiously without the author's name, the year after the death of Hooke. Newton added two discussions on curvilinear figures, in order to establish his priority over an ongoing work by Leibniz.
The copy of Opticks presented by Newton to Halley is estimated $ 400K for sale by Sotheby's in New York on December 4, lot 918. It is not dedicated but Halley wrote on the inside title page: "Luceo. Ex dono doctissimi authoris". Luceo, which does not mean anything in Latin, is a burst of enthusiasm based on Lux.
On our last day of book sales from the Pirie Collection, Newton’s Opticks sold for $1.3m, more than 2x the estimate pic.twitter.com/YPeX07ZcJy
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) December 4, 2015
1745-1749 The Scientific Archives of Cirey
2012 SOLD for € 960K including premium by Christie's
2018 SOLD for € 510K including premium
PRE 2018 SALE DISCUSSION
Helped by Maupertuis and Clairaut, the Marquise du Châtelet is able to understand and comment on Newton and Leibniz. In their château de Cirey, the marquis admires the exceptional intelligence of his wife and closes his eyes on her loves.
In 1734 Voltaire is disgraced. The Marquise lodges him in Cirey. She is 27 years old. The philosopher learns from his mistress the mathematics and physics that he had largely neglected until then.
The Marquise is a tireless worker. Her manuscripts, often written by secretaries and extensively reworked by her, surfaced a few years ago in an attic. Important pieces were sold by Christie's on October 29, 2012. A call for donations had been issued for an acquisition by the French State and 1400 researchers from around the world had signed a petition for a pre-emption. Both moves were unsuccessful because of the high prices that were expected.
The top lot was a set of 35 workbooks prepared from 1745 to 1749 by Madame du Châtelet for the didactic abstracts accompanying her translation of Newton's Principia Mathematica. Estimated € 400K, it was acquired in that sale for € 960K including premium by the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits de Paris which had immediately communicated its commitment to exhibit it to the public.
The museum was managed by Aristophil. In the same sale, Aristophil had anonymously acquired 8 lots of manuscripts by the Marquise, 2 lots of manuscripts by Voltaire on Newton and a portrait of the Marquise attributed to Marie-Anne Loir.
These 12 lots will be sold in Paris - Drouot on November 19 by OVA, the company in charge of the legal dispersion of the Aristophil collections. The auction is operated by Artcurial. Pieces from the 2012 sale are now lots 679 to 690. The abstracts of the Principia are the lot 689.
RESULT :
Lot 689 SOLD for € 510K including premium
Helped by Maupertuis and Clairaut, the Marquise du Châtelet is able to understand and comment on Newton and Leibniz. In their château de Cirey, the marquis admires the exceptional intelligence of his wife and closes his eyes on her loves.
In 1734 Voltaire is disgraced. The Marquise lodges him in Cirey. She is 27 years old. The philosopher learns from his mistress the mathematics and physics that he had largely neglected until then.
The Marquise is a tireless worker. Her manuscripts, often written by secretaries and extensively reworked by her, surfaced a few years ago in an attic. Important pieces were sold by Christie's on October 29, 2012. A call for donations had been issued for an acquisition by the French State and 1400 researchers from around the world had signed a petition for a pre-emption. Both moves were unsuccessful because of the high prices that were expected.
The top lot was a set of 35 workbooks prepared from 1745 to 1749 by Madame du Châtelet for the didactic abstracts accompanying her translation of Newton's Principia Mathematica. Estimated € 400K, it was acquired in that sale for € 960K including premium by the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits de Paris which had immediately communicated its commitment to exhibit it to the public.
The museum was managed by Aristophil. In the same sale, Aristophil had anonymously acquired 8 lots of manuscripts by the Marquise, 2 lots of manuscripts by Voltaire on Newton and a portrait of the Marquise attributed to Marie-Anne Loir.
These 12 lots will be sold in Paris - Drouot on November 19 by OVA, the company in charge of the legal dispersion of the Aristophil collections. The auction is operated by Artcurial. Pieces from the 2012 sale are now lots 679 to 690. The abstracts of the Principia are the lot 689.
RESULT :
Lot 689 SOLD for € 510K including premium
Les manuscrits d'Emilie du Châtelet "Exposition abregée du sisteme du monde selon les principes de Mr.Neuton" vient d'emporter 507 000 € lors de la vente n°13 des Collections Aristophil par @Artcurial pic.twitter.com/WU40wTQ76c
— Drouot (@Drouot) November 19, 2018
1750 Cabinet de Curiosités de la Couronne
1
Microscope of the Duc de Chaulnes
1999 SOLD for £ 1M by Christie's
In 1750 the Cabinet de Curiosités de la Couronne is installed in a pavilion in the garden of La Muette, near Passy, where the castle has just been rebuilt on request from King Louis XV. It is specially focusing on optics.
Some scientific instruments are commissioned to the clockmaker Claude-Siméon Passemant, also author in 1754 of an astronomical clock which set the official time of the kingdom.
The duc de Chaulnes is altogether astronomer, physicist and engineer. One of his most spectacular contributions to knowledge is the simulation of lightning.
He also had the idea of combining the microscope and the micrometer, invented separately before him. This invention was fruitful because it immediately enabled to measure the small objects admired by Van Leeuwenhoek.
A small series of microscopes from the design of the duc de Chaulnes was made circa 1750. Some copies have survived.
The optical microscope and the mechanism are attributed to Passemant. The micrometer was made by André Maingaut. The scientific quality was at that time not inconsistent with luxury: its gilt bronzes may be attributed to Caffieri.
Some instruments have their tube wrapped in fishskin. One of them was sold for £ 1M by Christie's on July 8, 1999, lot 184 and another one for € 900K by Sotheby's on October 22, 2008, lot 65.
Another one with no shagreen was sold for € 620K from a lower estimate of € 200K by Piasa on June 19, 2013.
Some scientific instruments are commissioned to the clockmaker Claude-Siméon Passemant, also author in 1754 of an astronomical clock which set the official time of the kingdom.
The duc de Chaulnes is altogether astronomer, physicist and engineer. One of his most spectacular contributions to knowledge is the simulation of lightning.
He also had the idea of combining the microscope and the micrometer, invented separately before him. This invention was fruitful because it immediately enabled to measure the small objects admired by Van Leeuwenhoek.
A small series of microscopes from the design of the duc de Chaulnes was made circa 1750. Some copies have survived.
The optical microscope and the mechanism are attributed to Passemant. The micrometer was made by André Maingaut. The scientific quality was at that time not inconsistent with luxury: its gilt bronzes may be attributed to Caffieri.
Some instruments have their tube wrapped in fishskin. One of them was sold for £ 1M by Christie's on July 8, 1999, lot 184 and another one for € 900K by Sotheby's on October 22, 2008, lot 65.
Another one with no shagreen was sold for € 620K from a lower estimate of € 200K by Piasa on June 19, 2013.
2
Microscope of the Duc de Chaulnes
2008 SOLD for € 900K by Sotheby's
A microscope of the duc de Chaulnes with a shagreen wrapped tube was sold for € 900K by Sotheby's on October 22, 2008, lot 65.
3
Culpeper Microscope
2021 SOLD for € 1.02M by Christie's
A microscope attributed to Passemant was sold for € 1.02M from a lower estimate of € 300K by Christie's on November 23, 2021, lot 208. This instrument 55 cm high is made of gilt bronze, steel, mahogany and shagreen. The bronzes are attributed to Caffieri.
It is a highly rare deluxe French example of a microscope in the Culpeper tripod type, developed in England ca 1725.
It is a highly rare deluxe French example of a microscope in the Culpeper tripod type, developed in England ca 1725.
Sold by Christie's for € 1.02M :
— ArtHitParade (@ArtHitParade) November 23, 2021
MICROSCOPE D'EPOQUE LOUIS XV https://t.co/uKmpN5XKxg
