Welcome to this third and final installment in my Guest Series on new editions of 17th-century women writers. This last essay discusses an extraordinary figure whose writings are a rich weave of interests, from feminism, politics, and education, to astronomy, astrology, and cosmography. This is none other than the remarkable Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (c1623-1673), a writer of many qualities who took English literature to a whole new level. She owned a telescope. She collected optical lenses. She designed her own (lavish) couture. Her visit to the new London Royal Society in 1667 was a sensation. Confident in her abilities and certain of “a glorious Fame”, she published under her own name and her record of publication (plays, poetry, essays, letters, prose fiction, autobiography) was substantial. She described her manuscripts as “paper Bodies”, living things creating “a great Blazing Light” after her death. (An expanding cohort of advocates would say: Yea, she was right!) Her masterpiece and signature work is an astonishing futuristic text, The Blazing-World (London, 1666, 1668), considered the first-ever science fiction novel written and published by a woman writer. It is now available in a new edition for 21st-century readers, prepared by Sara H. Mendelson, a respected scholar on Cavendish and a former president of the Margaret Cavendish Society. Fasten your seatbelts, Duchess Margaret will take you right out of this world. < Click here for essay >
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Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 51. Ortelius' Influential Map of the New World - Second Plate in Full Contemporary Color (1579) Est. $5,500 - $6,500Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 165. Reduced-Size Edition of Jefferys/Mead Map with Revolutionary War Updates (1776) Est. $4,750 - $6,000Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 688. Blaeu's Superb Carte-a-Figures Map of Africa (1634) Est. $3,000 - $3,750Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 105. Striking Map of French Colonial Possessions (1720) Est. $2,750 - $3,500Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 98. Rare First Edition of the First Published Plan of a Settlement in North America (1556) Est. $3,000 - $3,750Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 181. Important Map of the Georgia Colony (1748) Est. $2,750 - $3,500Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 547. Ortelius' Map of Russia with a Vignette of Ivan the Terrible in Full Contemporary Color (1579) Est. $1,400 - $1,700Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 85. Homann's Decorative Map of Colonial America (1720) Est. $1,600 - $1,900Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 642. Blaeu's Magnificent Carte-a-Figures Map of Asia (1634) Est. $3,000 - $3,750Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 748. The Martyrdom of St. John in Contemporary Hand Color with Gilt Highlights (1520) Est. $1,000 - $1,300Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 298. Scarce Early Map of Chester County (1822) Est. $2,750 - $3,500 -
Ketterer Rare Books
Auction November 25thKetterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
H. Schedel, Liber chronicarum, 1493. Est: € 25,000Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
P. O. Runge, Farben-Kugel, 1810. Est: € 8,000Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
W. Kandinsky, Klänge, 1913. Est: € 20,000Ketterer Rare Books
Auction November 25thKetterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
W. Burley, De vita et moribus philosophorum, 1473. Est: € 4,000Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
M. B. Valentini, Viridarium reformatum seu regnum vegetabile, 1719. Est: € 12,000Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
PAN, 10 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: € 15,000Ketterer Rare Books
Auction November 25thKetterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
J. de Gaddesden, Rosa anglica practica medicinae, 1492. Est: € 12,000Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
M. Merian, Todten-Tanz, 1649. Est: € 5,000Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
D. Hammett, Red harvest, 1929. Est: € 11,000Ketterer Rare Books
Auction November 25thKetterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
Book of hours, Horae B. M. V., 1503. Est: € 9,000Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
J. Miller, Illustratio systematis sexualis Linneai, 1792. Est: € 8,000Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
F. Hundertwasser, Regentag – Look at it on a rainy day, 1972. Est: € 8,000 -
Sotheby's
Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
Available for Immediate PurchaseSotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. 11,135 USDSotheby’s: Edgar Allan Poe. The Raven and Other Poems, 1845. 33,000 USDSotheby’s: Leo Tolstoy, Clara Bow. War and Peace, 1886. 22,500 USDSotheby’s: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1902. 7,500 USDSotheby’s: F. Scott Fitzgerald. This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, and Others, 1920-1941. 24,180 USD -
Gonnelli:
Auction 55
Antique prints, paintings and maps
November 26st 2024Gonnelli: Stefano Della Bella, 23 animal plances,1641. Starting price 480€Gonnelli: Stefano Della Bella, Boar Hunt, 1654. Starting price 180€Gonnelli: Crispijn Van de Passe, The seven Arts, 1637. Starting price 600€Gonnelli: Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, La Maschera è cagion di molti mali, 1688. Starting price 320€Gonnelli: Biribissor’s game, 1804-15. Starting price 2800€Gonnelli: Nicolas II de Larmessin, Habitats,1700. Starting price 320€Gonnelli: Miniature “O”, 1400. Starting price 1800€Gonnelli: Jan Van der Straet, Hunt scenes, 1596. Starting Price 140€Gonnelli: Massimino Baseggio, Costantinople, 1787. Starting price 480€Gonnelli: Kawanabe Kyosai, Erotic scene lighten up by a candle, 1860. Starting price 380€Gonnelli: Duck shaped dropper, 1670. Starting price 800€
Rare Book Monthly
Articles - December - 2016 Issue
Old Books / New Editions. Part III of III. New Work on Margaret Cavendish’s "The Blazing World" (1666; 2016)
![<b>Finarte, Nov 20-21:</b> Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia, [col commento di Jacopo della Lana e Martino Paolo Nidobeato, curata da Martino Paolo Nidobeato e Guido da Terzago. Aggiunto Il Credo], 1478](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/45a90570-7486-4199-91da-bd2e9a044380.jpg "<b>Finarte, Nov 20-21:</b> Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia, [col commento di Jacopo della Lana e Martino Paolo Nidobeato, curata da Martino Paolo Nidobeato e Guido da Terzago. Aggiunto Il Credo], 1478")
![<b>Finarte, Nov 20-21:</b> Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus, edita da Piero da Figino. Aggiunte le Rime diverse; Marsilius Ficinius, Ad Dantem gratulatio], 1491](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/99566626-91f5-42da-8f8c-05fae35b4c67.jpg "<b>Finarte, Nov 20-21:</b> Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus, edita da Piero da Figino. Aggiunte le Rime diverse; Marsilius Ficinius, Ad Dantem gratulatio], 1491")
