galileo 1 5 million sale auction record 2666349

A rare first edition of Galileo Galilei's 1605 publication *Dialogo de Cecco di Ronchitti da Bruzene in perpuosito de la stella Nuova* sold for £1.1 million ($1.5 million) at Christie's London's Valuable Books and Manuscripts sale on July 9, roughly double its presale estimate. The work, Galileo's first publication, has not appeared on the market in over a century, and only seven other complete copies are known, all held by institutions such as the Berlin State Library and All Souls College at Oxford University.