An ancient book on astronomy from the 1500s sold for more than £10,000 ($12,200), as a "private international buyer" triumphed over intense competition at a U.K. auction.
The Castle of Knowledge by Robert Recorde—a Welsh physician and mathematician who lived from 1510 to 1558—was published in 1556. It was the first text on astronomy to be published in the English language, just a few years before the birth of Galileo Galilei, the Italian astronomer who revolutionized the way we study the universe.
The book was a first edition and sold by Hansons Auctioneers on November 1 in Staffordshire, according to a statement from the auction house.
"I was thrilled to see the book achieve the price it deserved," Jim Spencer, head of books at Hansons, said in the statement. "It was an amazing discovery, the most important scientific text I've ever handled. It's the first astronomical treatise to be published in English. The book was printed 467 years ago, before many of the major astronomers had even been born, including Galileo (1564-1642), who's described as the father of observational astronomy."
Spencer added that this particular book "felt special" when it first arrived at the auction house in a box.
"A little research quickly revealed its significance and scarcity," he said. "The author, Robert Recorde, invented the equals sign, so the equation I proffer for this auction is: important book = big price. I could only find one other copy sold at auction. It fetched $90,000 at Bonhams in 2007. The same book previously sold at Sotheby's in 1971. Admittedly our copy was not so well-preserved, but it was just incredibly rare."
As well as being the oldest surviving book on astronomy in English history, it is also the first to mention the heliocentric system—the model that details the Earth and planets revolving around the Sun.
Although astronomy has developed greatly over the years, early texts such as this are important to scientists for gaining insight into how we came to know about space and the universe.
The author was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, and studied at the University of Oxford. He originally chose medicine as a profession, but later practiced as a physician for King Edward VI and Queen Mary.
He was later sued for defamation and ended up in jail for debt, where he died.
"Recorde was a brilliant Welsh academic, physician and mathematician whose name should be more widely known," Spencer said. "As well as inventing the equals sign (=) he introduced the pre-existing plus (+) and minus (−) signs to English speakers in 1557. And yet many people have not heard of him, partly perhaps because of his tragic end."
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Uncommon Knowledge
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Robyn White is a Newsweek Nature Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on wildlife, science and the ... Read more
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