Unique Auction of books on Alexander

Recommend, or otherwise, books on Alexander (fiction or non-fiction). Promote your novel here!

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amyntoros
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Unique Auction of books on Alexander

Post by amyntoros »

I found out about the following auction of rare Alexander books via a thread on Tim Spalding's LibraryThing. This first link will give you the option of viewing a few books at a time; this link, for those with a fast connection, shows all the books on the same page. The books at the beginning of the listing are not about Alexander though, so I suggest you go to the last page (or book) and work backwards. Not that I think any our members in the western United States will likely run to the auction house next Thursday to bid on these - the least expensive book is estimated at $200 and upwards, with some costing a great deal more. How does a fifteenth century volume of Pseudo Callisthenes at five to eight thousand dollars grab you? Or an "Englishe" sixteenth Century translation of Curtius at twenty to thirty thousand? Still, it's amazing to see how the source material on Alexander has continued to be published for centuries.

The very last offering interests me the most – a collection of approximately 260 volumes on Alexander the Great for the small estimate of seven hundred to a thousand dollars. (That would be under $3-$4 a book if the collection sells according to estimate!) The auction site says: "Beginning in the 1920s, Julio Berzunza amassed a comprehensive collection of Alexandriana, the basis for his landmark work", so I did an Amazon search for the author. It seems that in 1939 he privately printed a book entitled A tentative classification of books, pamphlets and pictures concerning Alexander the Great and the Alexander romances, from the collection of Julio Berzunza. Unless he continued to collect "Alexandriana" after his work was completed this should mean that all 260 volumes are books which were published before 1939! To think I've only been able to find 3 or 4 from the nineteenth century! :shock:

Best regards,
Amyntoros

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jan
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Very Impressive

Post by jan »

Thank you, Amyntoros, for the links to this amazing group of books. Very impressive. I would imagine that this will mean a lot to a collector of Alexander memorobilia. Thanks again. :)
Katerina

Re: Unique Auction of books on Alexander

Post by Katerina »

amyntoros wrote:I found out about the following auction of rare Alexander books via a thread on Tim Spalding's LibraryThing. the Great and the Alexander romances, from the collection of Julio Berzunza.[/url] Unless he continued to collect "Alexandriana" after his work was completed this should mean that all 260 volumes are books which were published before 1939! To think I've only been able to find 3 or 4 from the nineteenth century! :shock:
It was interesting knowing what these items SOLD for ! I collect Alexander romances (of course none quite as old as they have ) but I sure wish I could read some of the older ones !!!
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