Valuable Books and Manuscripts

Valuable Books and Manuscripts

Sale Overview

Christie’s Valuable Books and Manuscripts auction brings together an exceptional selection of manuscripts, printed books, and cartographic masterpieces spanning six centuries of intellectual achievement. Leading the sale are three extraordinary works: the celebrated Wunderzeichenbuch ('Book of Miracles'), a 16th-century illustrated manuscript comprising 167 remarkable watercolours; a newly-surfaced 1940 autograph manuscript by Albert Einstein on his pursuit of a unified field theory; and Gerard Mercator’s monumental Atlas sive Cosmographicae (1585-1595), one of the defining monuments of early modern cartography.

At the heart of the sale is ‘An Alchemy of Ideas: Works from the Mickey Cartin Collection’, an outstanding assembly of books tracing the transmission of knowledge from classical antiquity to the modern age. Led by the 'Book of Miracles', other highlights include the first complete edition of Plato in Greek, landmarks of early Greek printing, Georg Bartisch’s pioneering illustrated study of ophthalmology, the magnificently illustrated Theuerdank, John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and Giorgio Vasari’s celebrated Lives of the Artists.

We are also delighted to present a remarkable selection of works documenting the development of modern physics, mathematics and scientific thought. Manuscripts, letters and first editions by figures including Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Henri Poincaré, Marie Curie and Werner Heisenberg chart some of the most transformative discoveries of the modern era.

Explore our Classic Week auctions in London.

Auction times
10 Dec 12:00 PM (GMT)

Brought to you by

Mark Wiltshire

Mark Wiltshire

Specialist | Books & Manuscripts

Mark has over a decade’s experience in rare books and has been responsible for important sales in the fields of science, fiction, and science fiction, having set the record price for a work by a female scientist (Ada Lovelace’s Sketch of the Analytical Engine; £212,500), and overseen successful auctions including First Editions, Second Thoughts: An Auction in Support of English PEN (July 2022), Charlie Watts: Gentleman, Collector, Rolling Stone (September 2023), and Science Fiction and Fantasy (December 2024). In private sales, he has sold works by writers including Jane Austen, Victor Hugo, and Robert Burns, as well as several fine and inscribed copies of the first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. He was a co-curator of the Loan and Private Selling exhibition The Art of Literature in 2022, which brought together masterpieces like Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623), T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), and pictures by artists including Rubens and Picasso. Mark holds degrees from the Universities of York and Oxford, where he specialised in the works of the Romantic poets, and has lectured on the life and poetry of his beloved John Keats.
Eleonora Pontiggia

Eleonora Pontiggia

Business Development Associate | Books & Manuscripts

Eleonora is a Business Development Associate in the Books and Manuscripts Department, where she supports business development, valuations, cataloguing, client management, and auction preparation. She works closely with clients and colleagues across Christie’s global network to source property, develop new business opportunities, and deliver successful sales.

Before joining the department, Eleonora held roles across Christie’s specialising in valuations, cataloguing, provenance research, market analysis, and client development in the fields of rare books, manuscripts, and Old Master paintings.

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