Not sure if this is a good price - I certainly don't have that kind of money to spend on the book; but thought I would post the news anyway, in case someone is looking for one of these.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... SS:GB:1123

oh I wish I could afford to buy this!!
thanks Deb for the dream!!xx

Couldn't it be acquired by some "cultural heritage organisation", or an institute like the British Museum?
Maybe this suggestion is redundant, and maybe more than one original exemplar might allready be taken care off by official instances...
Just wondering...

(I could imagine the British Museum acquiring such an exemplar...)

Herman

(from Antwerp, Belgium)

hervaro wrote:
(I could imagine the British Museum acquiring such an exemplar...)

Herman

(from Antwerp, Belgium)

Why not? Last year in Rome I saw a wonderful collection of astrological texts of XVII century. I remember Morin's Astrologia Gallica, Argoli, Firmicus, Tetrabiblos, Cellarius...

It was a part of Jesuits collection.

margherita

Just found this topic a few minutes ago!

The essence of my thoughts in response to Tom's enquiry regarding this copy was that not enough information had been provided by the seller for a clear valuation to be possible. The number of missing pages that had been replaced in an early manuscript hand (as well as which pages they were in the book) had not been specified, and the extent of the worming had not been clearly stated or indicated with scans. It was therefore no surprise to me that this copy did not sell. If the worming is all marginal and does not efface any characters of text, the value will be higher than if some characters are altogether lost (even if the words can still be made out). And though missing signatures of pages in first and second editions of C.A. are a common fault, this does tend to limit the value compared with copies where all the pages are in original print, even though as the seller correctly pointed out, there are some scholars and collectors who have a particular interest in early manuscript hands and to these collectors that would be a positive feature rather than a drawback.

Another factor is that recently there have been unusually many unsold firsts of C.A. on the book marketplace at fixed price, a telling sign of the state of the antiquarian book market generally since the recent economic slump, since a few years ago even copies priced upwards of $3000 were selling strongly.

In absolute terms, Christian Astrology is one of the most common 17th century astrology texts around. There are usually 1-2 new copies of the first and second editions appearing on the used book market, on eBay and at major auction combined every year. Because it is highly sought after, it is nonetheless rare, though not scarce.

The other day someone was discussing the 1910 first edition of Llewellyn George's 'A-Z Horoscope Delineator' with me on Facebook. By way of comparison, that first edition is extremely scarce. I have seen but one copy listed for sale in any market in 6? years, which would mean that there are probably between five and ten times as many firsts of Christian Astrology in circulation. Yet the value of the much scarcer work by Llewellyn George is of an order of magnitude lower than that of the much more common work by Lilly, because the former is so much less sought after. This may change somewhat in time. Currently only astrology books from before 1850 tend to fetch prices significantly in excess of $100-$200 per copy for the most part (there are a few 20th century academic works worth more than that, of course); but as the 21st century progresses, later works may become more widely collected too, and their prices may rise accordingly.