Fluxus 1, Witch Paranoia, Maths Archive: The Week in Rare Books

This weekly auction result is provided by Spencer W Stuart, an independent collections advisor specializing in rare books and manuscripts as well as fine photography and prints. He is also the author of Contemporary Issues in Rare Books & Manuscript Collecting and host of the monthly webinar Collecting Insights.

These are the three lots that stuck out this week because of either uniqueness or exceeding expectations:

Unusual archive of mathematician Peter D. Lax

Peter D. Max taught, spoke, and consulted at numerous universities and conferences including for the Los Alamos Science Labs. He wrote several books on mathematics, was winner of the Wolf, Abel, Chauvenet and National Medal of Science awards. This archive of more of more than 1,000 documents, letters, programs, and personal items from the 1940s to the 1990s includes letters from Greta Garbo, Robert Oppenheimer, and Niels Bohr. Sold by New England Book Auctions for $17,000

16th century witch paranoia

Dæmonolatreiæ libri tres (Frankfurt am Main, Hartmann Palthenius, 1596) by Nicolas Rémy who directed hundreds of trials, and sent hundreds of accused women, men and children to the stake after interrogations often marked by torture. In 1595, he published this treatise - one of the most important early works on demons and witches - in which he sets out the mechanisms of witchcraft, pacts with the devil, sabbats and crimes attributed to witches, plus the methods used to unmask them, justifying the use of violence to extract confessions. Sold by Ader for €3,285 following an estimate of €400-600.

Fluxus 1

Scarce artists' book (New York, Fluxus, 1964) edited and produced by the Lithuanian-American artist George Maciunas, containing works by a series of artists associated with Fluxus, the international collective of avant-garde artists primarily active in the 1960s and 1970s. Some copies contain a 7" record, not present here. Sold by PBA Galleries for $8,125 following an estimate of $1,000-$1,500