From early manuscripts to rare first editions, books reflect the evolution of ideas and storytelling. Valued not only for their content but also their rarity, condition and provenance, exceptional volumes have become sought-after collectors' pieces. Today, important books continue to offer a tangible connection to authors, histories and stories that have shaped readers for generations — in 2021, Christie's sold a first edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, uncut in its original boards, for US$1.2 million.
Agnolo Bronzino (Florence 1503-1572)
Portrait of a young man with a book
Epistola de insulis nuper inventis
Christopher Columbus, 1493
DOMÉNIKOS THEOTOKÓPOULOS, CALLED EL GRECO (CRETE 1541-1614 TOLEDO)
Portrait of a young man, traditionally identified as Saint Aloysius (Luigi) Gonzaga (1568-1591), half-length, with a book
Master of the Paris Bartholomeus Anglicus (active 1430-1450)
Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Anjou or Le Mans, c.1440s]
HERBERT, Frank (1920-1986), Alejandro JODOROWSKY (né en 1926), Jean GIRAUD (1938-2012) et d'autres
Dune. Suresnes : imprimé par les ateliers industriels de reprographie Aviaplans, [circa 1975]
ADRIAN GHENIE (B. 1977)
Burning Books
JEAN-BAPTISTE OUDRY (PARIS 1686-1755 BEAUVAIS)
Album containing a frontispiece and 138 illustrations for books I to VI of the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino (Cento 1591-1666 Bologna)
A vanitas still life with a skull atop a book, an hourglass and two glass vases of flowers
De humani corporis fabrica
Andreas Vesalius, 1555, his annotated copy
Burgundian Master, circa 1480
Portrait of a man holding a prayer book, bust-length, in a fur-lined coat and cap
Master of the Monypenny Breviary and associates
The Almanac Book of Hours, use of Rome, in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Bourges, c. 1490s]
Frans Hals (Antwerp 1581/5-1666 Haarlem)
Portrait of Conradus Viëtor (1588-1657), aged 56, half-length, in a black doublet, cloak and hat, with a white ruff, and holding a book
De Insulis nuper inventis
Christopher Columbus, 1494
DOMÉNIKOS THEOTOKÓPOULOS, CALLED EL GRECO (CRETE 1541-1614 TOLEDO)
Portrait of a gentleman, half-length, in black, his right hand resting on a book
[BRONTË, Emily (1818-1848) and Anne (1820-1849)]
Wuthering Heights. A Novel. By Ellis Bell. – Agnes Grey. A Novel, by Acton Bell. London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847.
[GALILEO GALILEI (1564-1642) and Girolamo SPINELLI (c.1580-1647)]
Dialogo de Cecco di Ronchitti da Bruzene. In perpuosito de la stella nuova . Padua: Pietro Paulo Tozzi, 1605.
MERCATOR, Gerard (1512-1594)
Tabulae Geographicae . Duisburg: 1585-1589.
HARVEY, William (1578-1657)
Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus. Frankfurt: William Fitzer, 1628.
Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain Xaintongeois
Samuel de Champlain, 1613
PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Gaius (Pliny the Elder, 23-79)
Historia naturalis . Venice: Johannes de Spira, [before 18 September] 1469.
NEWTON, Isaac (1642-1727)
Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica . Edited by Edmond Halley (1656-1743). London: Joseph Streater for the Royal Society [at the expense of Edmond Halley], to be sold by Samuel Smith and other booksellers, 1687.
Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966)
The Knave of Hearts: Book Plate Page
Plato's Opera
Lorenzo de Alopa [but the nuns of San Jacopo di Ripoli], 1484-5.
Wayne Thiebaud (b. 1920)
Various Books
Master of Jean de Mauléon (active 1520s)
BOOK OF HOURS, use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Paris, c.1525]
WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)
Salomé . Paris : Librairie de l'Art indépendant - Londres : Elkin Mathews et John Lane, 1893.
FRANS HALS (ANTWERP 1582⁄3-1666 HAARLEM)
Portrait of Johannes Hoornbeeck (1617-1666), half-length, in black dress, holding a book
Ed Ruscha (b. 1937)
We Few Open Book
Mysterium cosmographicum
Johannes Kepler, 1596
Workshop of Gerard Horenbout
The 'Book of Hours of Charles V', use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Ghent, c.1515]
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708-1787 Rome)
Portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter-length, in a red coat and a blue waistcoat with gold embroidery, holding a book and a tricorn hat, with a bronze statuette of the Venus de' Medici on the table, the Colosseum in the distance