- I brought something
What's that?
It's a book on the military and warfare from the time
of Queen Elizabeth I. It's called
"The Instructions for the Wars" and was printed in 1589.
It's actually one of the first military field
manuals for the English.
And it's also got a second book inside, which is the first book
on fortification.
Fornication?
- Fortification. - OK.
[laughs]
[explosion]
This book was printed in 1589 during the reign
of Queen Elizabeth I. It's one of the first
English military manuals and one of the first books
on fortification.
I want to sell the book because I studied it.
I enjoyed it.
And I have to pass it on to the next person.
I'm asking for $14,000 for the book today.
The man who translated the first of these books--
it was actually translated from French into English--
his name was Paul Ive.
And he was actually both a military engineer,
but he was also a spy under the English
Secret Service under the grand spymaster of Elizabeth I.
Queen Elizabeth, she doesn't really get
the credit she really deserves.
Probably because she was a woman.
She-- I mean, she was literally one of the greatest leaders
of the past 1,000 years.
By the time Queen Elizabeth died, it was
an extremely powerful nation.
It was not someone to be messed with.
It has some very wonderful woodcuts in it
that show the formations of the cavalry
and what's necessary for an army.
And then there's another diagram here
that shows the fortifications, or an example
of how you would build a fortification,
to ward off your enemy.
This is pretty amazing.
This book was printed in the 1500s,
and it's in the English language,
which makes it kind of rare.
But rare doesn't always mean money.
This is really cool.
How much do you want for this thing?
I'm going to ask 14,000 for it.
OK.
Let me-- you've met Rebecca a million times.
- Sure. - She's my book person.
And let me have her come down and look at it.
Yeah. I think she'll be excited by it.
Sounds great. - All right.
Hang on for a few minutes.
Be right back.
This is a contemporary vellum binding.
This is very exciting. - OK.
[laughs]
So Elizabethan era, one of the great sort of rivals
of Shakespeare was Kit Marlowe.
And Marlowe wrote one play.
It was very famous, successful, called "Tamburlaine."
And he actually quotes almost verbatim some passages
from this practice of fortification book.
Let me show you something.
Practice of fortification, imprinted 1589.
Most scholars believe the "Tamburlaine" was completed
by 1588 at the latest.
You mean Marlow might have copied from this?
Or--
He absolutely used passages from that book.
- That's very cool. - Isn't that awesome?
Yeah. That is.
One of the reasons I loved this book
is because it has this interesting connection to Kit
Marlowe.
People thought maybe he was actually a spy.
And this book connects him to another known spy, which
is Paul Ive, because he took portions
of Paul Ive's manuscript and incorporated them into a play.
Interesting connection.
I am really excited to see these plates here.
They're super unusual to see them with these folding
plates intact.
There aren't really any comps for this.
OK?
That's the tricky thing about it.
OK.
What do you think it's worth?
Looking at this, this has plates,
and this has that awesome Marlowe connection.
So I would place it around 12,000.
All right.
You're the best. - I know.
[laughs]
- I second that. - Nice to see you.
Thank you so much.
I think that it would be great book to have in the shop.
It really strikes someone as rare book.
This is what people think of when
they think of an old, valuable, important book.
All right.
So I am definitely not going to give you 14,000.
OK.
You know that she said it's extremely rare.
[sighs] I'll tell you what.
I'll give you a 8,000 for it.
I just think it has a lot of appeal.
It's an exciting book.
It is an exciting book, but--
Well, what's the absolute best?
Will you come up at all?
I can go $8,500.
You know, I really want the book.
But-- - OK.
I'll give you my best.
But you've got to come up a little.
I'm coming way down.
9,000.
I'll go 86.
[sighs] It's so hard to give this one up for that.
I'll go for it. I'll bring you some more stuff.
OK. Cool.
Meet you right over there, man.
I'm settling on $8,600.
I don't really want to sell it for that.
But I'm going to use the $8,600 to go reinvest in other things
and that I can hopefully learn about and possibly sell.