Gaffurio Codex Leads ll Ponte's Antique Books & Livres d'Artistes Sale

The Gaffurio Codex by composer and kapellmeister of Milan Cathedral Franchino Gaffurio headlines Il Ponte's Antique Books & Livres d'Artistes auction on September 30 and October 1.

The famous Italian music theorist's work was written 1473-74 and brings together the main treatises of medieval and early Renaissance music theory, the 13th century Ars cantus mensurabilis by Franco da Colonia, the Lucidarium, and part of the Pomerium by Marchetto da Padova (both early 14th century), as well as a treatise on counterpoint.

The manuscript also reveals the young Gaffurio's working method with numerous corrections, marginal additions, references, and explanatory drawings. Several pages intentionally left blank indicate his plan to expand the treatise at a later date. It is the oldest known entirely autograph manuscript by Gaffurio yet identified.

Additionally the codex (estimate: €180,000–€250,000) contains a set of 12 marginal drawings in red chalk, once attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. They show female and male portraits, figures in armor, studies of weapons, and a devotional scene with several figures, dating between the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Their attribution remains unclear.

Other highlights include:

• the rare incunabulum of Sonetti e Trionfi (€15,000–€25,000) by Francesco Petrarca, printed by Gabriele di Pietro in 1473
• a first edition of Della cristiana religione (estmate: €12,000–€18,000) by philosopher Marsilio Ficino, printed in Florence at the end of 1474
• the Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati figura (€25,000–€35,000) by Gerard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius published in 1611
• Le delizie della Brenta (€12,000–€18,000) by Giovanni Francesco Costa (1711–1772), a monumental edition published around 1780 with plates of the sumptuous villas along the Brenta Riviera
• the first edition of the Manifesto del Futurismo (€12,000–€18,000) by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, printed in Milan in January 1909 in the rare blue-ink issue
• the first Italian edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (€4,000–€6,000), published in 1970, translation, by Vittoria Alliata di Villafranca, no. 281 from a limited edition of only 300 ad personam copies produced as presentation copies for prominent figures of the time