Appendix B

Hooke’s purchases from Moses Pitt’s auction in 1678

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In a diary entry dated 24 December 1678 (figs. 5 and 5a), Hooke noted the delivery of 28 books ‘from Pits Auxion.’1 As evinced by the previous diary entries starting from 2 December, Hooke had been participating in the auction organized by the noted bookseller and printer, Moses Pitt, and whose catalogue may be identified as Gijsbert Voet [& Moses Pitt], Catalogus variorum librorum inst[r]uctissimæ bibliothecæ præstantissimi doctissimique viri in Anglia defuncti, ut & aliorum in omnibus scientiis atque linguis insignium, ex bibliothecæ clarissimi Gisberti Voetii emptorum cum multis aliis tum antiquis tum modernis nuperrimæ ex variis partibus Europæ advectis quorum auctio habebitur . . . Novembris 25, 1678.2

Hooke listed all 28 books he had successfully bid on, albeit rather cryptically with partial titles and/or truncated author names; but as he included the corresponding lot numbers to Pitt’s catalogue, it has been possible to further identify these books.3

The following list gives the reference information for each book in Pitt’s auction catalogue (page number, lot number, section name, title under which the book was listed), followed by the price Hooke paid for the book, and finally in square brackets the Robert Hooke’s Books Database id number and the price it fetched at the 1703 auction of Hooke’s library.4

Hooke’s purchases in the order listed in his Diary:

  1. p. 2, lot 69 in ‘Libri Italic. Gallic. Hispan. Batav. Folio’; title “Astronomique discours par Jaques Bassantin. Lion. 1557.” 0-1-8 [auct_BH_230; no price indicated in the BH]
  2. p. 2, lot 73 in ‘Libri Italic. Gallic. Hispan. Batav. Folio’; title “L’Histoire Naturelle de C.Pline, fol. Paris. 1622.” 0-7-0 [auct_BH_142; 0-4-6]
  3. p. 3, lot 88 in ‘Libri Italic. Gallic. Hispan. Batav. Folio’; title “Nieuw groot Huermans Zee Spiegel, Amsterdam. 1664.” 0-4-6 [auct_BH_27; 0-2-0]
  4. p. 3, lot 91 in ‘Libri Italic. Gallic. Hispan. Batav. Folio’; title “Spieghel der Zeevaerdt van Navigatie. Leyden. 1584.” 0-2-0 [auct_BH_28; 0-1-6?]
  5. p. 3, lot 92 in ‘Libri Italic. Gallic. Hispan. Batav. Folio’; title “De Seven Boecken van de groot Zeevaert. Amsterdam. 1658.” 0-1-8 [auct_BH_304; 0-4-0]
  6. p. 5, lot 81 in ‘Libri Italici, Gallic. Hispan. Quarto’; title “Documenti Militari del Collonelo Nicolo Creiense. Padoua 1668.” 0-1-8 [auct_BH_954; no price indicated in the BH]
  7. p. 5, lot 90 in ‘Libri Italici, Gallic. Hispan. Quarto’; title “La Pharmacopea de Bauderon. Lugduni. 1662.” 0-2-0 [auct_BH_591; 0-1-0]
  8. p. 6, lot 117 in ‘Libri Italici, Gallic. Hispan. Quarto’; title “Estats, Empires, &c. du Monde, par Davity. Genevae. 1634.” 0-3-0 [auct_BH_354; 0-0-6]
  9. p. 6, lot 119 in ‘Libri Italici, Gallic. Hispan. Quarto’; title “Theatre D’Agriculture. A Geneve. 1619.” 0-2-0 (price noted in the margin of the catalogue: 0-2-2) [auct_BH_468; 0-1-7]
  10. p. 6, lot 126 in ‘Libri Italici, Gallic. Hispan. Quarto’; title “Maison Rustique de M. Ch. Estrenen. A Roüen. 1641.” 0-0-8 [auct_BH_467; 0-1-1]
  11. p. 7, lot 134 in ‘Libri Italici, Gallic. Hispan. Quarto’; title “Nouvelle Theorie des Planetes. Paris. 1635.” 0-2-1 [auct_BH_786; no price indicated in the BH]
  12. p. 8, lot 51 in ‘Livres Francois & Italian, in 8º & 12º’; title “Recherches & Observations naturelles de Monsieur Boccone. Amsterdam. 1674.” 0-2-0 (price noted in the margin of the catalogue: 0-2-5) [auct_BH_1224; 0-1-8]
  13. p. 95, lot 285 in ‘English in Folio’ [or at the top of the page: ‘Anglici Hist. & Miscell.’]; title “Plutarch‘s Lives and Morals. Vol. 2. 1657. 1674.” 2-0-0 [auct_BH_1840; 0-8-6]
  14. p. 96, lot 338 in ‘English in Folio’ [or at the top of the page: ‘Anglici Hist. & Miscell.’]; title “Schefferus History of Lapland, Oxon. 1674.” 0-4-4 [auct_BH_1799; 0-3-10]
  15. p. 44, lot 137 in ‘Libri Historici, Philosophici, Mathematici, &c. in Folio’; title “[Euclidis] Latinè, cum Interpret. & Scholiis F. Flussatis. Candallae 1566.” 0-1-6 [auct_BH_189; 0-1-2]
  16. p. 45, lot 168 [misread and printed as 138 in the print edition of the Diary; see the manuscript version where it is corrected to 168] in ‘Libri Historici, Philosophici, Mathematici, &c. in Folio’; title “Guicciardini Descriptio Inferioris Germaniae Regionum. Amst. 1613.” 0-5-0 [not in the BH]
  17. p. 46, lot 199 in ‘Libri Historici, Philosophici, Mathematici, &c. in Folio’; title “Historia & Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis. Oxon. 1674.” 0-18-0 [auct_BH_38; 0-15-0]
  18. p. 46, lot 202 in ‘Libri Historici, Philosophici, Mathematici, &c. in Folio’; title “Hollandi (H.) Herologia Anglica; sive Vivae Effigies, Vitae & Elogia Claris. & Doctis. aliquot Anglorum, &c. Londini.” 0-5-6 [auct_BH_43; 0-12-0]
  19. p. 47, lot 242 in ‘Libri Historici, Philosophici, Mathematici, &c. in Folio’; title “Kaerii (Petri) Germania Inferior; id est, 17 Provinciarum ejus Novae & Exactae Tabulae Geographicae. Amst. 1617.” 0-6-6 [auct_BH_24; 0-2-8]
  20. p. 47, lot 252 in ‘Libri Historici, Philosophici, Mathematici, &c. in Folio’; title “[Kircheri (Athan.)] China Illustrata. (Figuris.) Amst. 1667.” 0-8-6 [not in the BH; Antwerp edition is auct_BH_49 which was sold for 0-3-0]
  21. p. 52, lot 475 in ‘Libri Historici, Philosophici, Mathematici, &c. in Folio’; title “Vietae (Fran.) Opera Varia Math. Turanis 1591.” 0-4-0 [auct_BH_200; 0-1-10]
  22. p. 53, lot 4 in ‘Libri in Folio qui sunt omissi in Alphabeto’; title “Buxtorfii Lexicon Chaldaicum, Talmud. & Rabbinicum. Bas. 1640.” 1-6-0 [auct_BH_177; 0-12-6]
  23. p. 100, lot 368 in ‘Hist. Philos. Mathemat. &c. in Duodecimo, &c.’; title “Meldor (Ch.) in Libros IV. Prioris Euclidis Element. Ibid. [Lugd. Bat.] 1673.” 0-1-7 (price noted in the margin of the catalogue: 0-1-8) [auct_BH_1748; 0-0-6]
  24. p. 1, lot 3 in ‘Libri Italic. Gallic. Hispan. Batav. Folio’; title “Saggi di Naturali Esperienze, &c. in Fiorenze. 1667.” 0-15-0 [auct_BH_162; 0-8-0]
  25. p. 1, lot 20 in ‘Libri Italic. Gallic. Hispan. Batav. Folio’; title “Italia di Gio. Ant. Magini. Bononiae, 1620.” 0-7-0 [auct_BH_25; 0-2-6]
  26. p. 1, lot 22 in ‘Libri Italic. Gallic. Hispan. Batav. Folio’; title “Lo Inganno de Gl’occhi, Prospettiva pratica di Piet. Accolti, Fiorenze, 1625.” 0-3-0 [auct_BH_295; 0-3-6]
  27. p. 1, lot 39 in ‘Libri Italic. Gallic. Hispan. Batav. Folio’; title “Theatre d’Agriculture d’Oliv. de Serres, ibid. [Paris] 1600.” 0-2-0 [auct_BH_150; 0-1-6]
  28. p. 2, lot 62 in ‘Libri Italic. Gallic. Hispan. Batav. Folio’; title “Les Oeuvres Mathematiques de Simon Stevin. Leyden. 1634.” 0-16-6 [auct_BH_282; 0-3-6]

Appendix A ❮ back || next ❯ Appendix C

  1. Robinson and Adams, eds., Diary, p. 390. []
  2. ESTC, citation no. R232197. []
  3. It should be noted that this catalogue was not continuously paginated and that the digitized copy available via EEBO is missing a significant number of pages. In order to identify all the books, we have instead consulted the British Library copy of the print catalogue, bearing the shelfmark C.120.c.2.(7), but the digitized version, although imperfect, is available online. []
  4. See Part I of the ‘Editors’ Introduction’ for more information on the Bibliotheca Hookiana (1703) [hereafter BH]. All prices are given in the pound-shilling-pence format. Note that there were a few small discrepancies between the prices Hooke noted paying and the prices noted in the margins of the British Library copy of Pitt’s catalogue; see 9, 12, and 23. []