http://cgi.ebay.com/The-European-Horosc ... dZViewItem

The seller has indicated neither the author, nor the title of the book. The condition has not been described at all.

Instead, the seller has attempted to sell the book by selling the virtues of astrology in general, yet has not given any clear reason to buy this book on astrology instead of any other, inordinately cheaper one covering the same topics. The seller also claims (falsely, as I shall go on to demonstrate) that the book is a unique copy.

The asking price, with bids starting from ?1,050,000.00, is variously risible, lamentable, or shocking, depending on how sympathetic one feels towards the good intentions of the seller, who incidentally has zero ebay feedback and registered on ebay only on August 23rd, not a good recipe for confidence in a pricey book listing.

I did my own investigations using the photographs and date provided, and discovered within five minutes flat that this is a much later 1767 reprint of a work in German that went through numerous editions in the mid-16th century. Surely if the seller seriously hoped to get a million pounds or more for this book, he or she could at least have taken the trouble to identify it first? Apparently not.

The book is by Sebastian Brenner and is apparently a reworking of an older work by Antonio Ackermann. There is a copy of this very edition in the Netherlands, as indicated by OCLC, even before I have begun to search German library records.

http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/65661 ... 3AAcademic

From that page, one has only to type in the name of the book: "Das grosse planeten buch', as evident from the pictures, to see details of collation, author, etc., as recorded by the library in the Netherlands that has it.

Then OCLC shows the earlier editions here:
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/220817391? ... tions#tabs

In view of the broken frontispiece portrait, not to mention the total uncertainty regarding the remaining pages in the absence of a clearer declaration, I would suggest that this late 18th century reprint would be most unlikely to fetch in excess of around ?250 or $500 at auction, whether on ebay or at major auction house.

Oh, and by the way, I just found that there is a slightly earlier 1757 edition of the same title currently for sale fixed price for 340 Euros on ZVAB:
http://www.zvab.com/displayBookDetails. ... 758363&b=1

I fear someone in Latvia is desperate to become an overnight millionaire of the pound sterling denomination. Clutching at straws, alas....

Philip

Let this joker on e-bay !

You can find 3 editions of Brenner's Planeten-Buch at the Munich DL :

1550 : http://mdz10.bib-bvb.de/~db/pdf/1220880 ... 024456.pdf
1552 : http://mdz10.bib-bvb.de/~db/pdf/1220880 ... 025893.pdf
1554 : http://mdz10.bib-bvb.de/~db/pdf/1220879 ... 024284.pdf

-- probably more interesting ones than a late one of 1767 !

Patrice

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The book is by Sebastian Brenner and is apparently a reworking of an older work by Antonio Ackermann.

seems to be the contrary ...

Patrice