Albert Einstein (1879-1955) and Leopold Infeld (1898-1968).

The Evolution of Physics. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1938.

‘The courage to be trivial’. Presentation copy of the first edition, with a verse inscription in German by Einstein to his colleague and friend at Princeton, the Jewish-American palaeographer Elias Avery Lowe: ‘We pride ourselves on nothing but the courage to be trivial. For a person is simple in his striving for truth, and it is honest to admit this openly’. Weil 201.

Octavo (202 x 135mm). 3 plates. Original blue cloth, gilt to upper cover and spine, dustjacket (dustjacket lightly worn at edges, short tear at upper edge of lower panel). Provenance: Elias Avery Lowe (1879-1969; authorial presentation inscription on endpaper).

E.A. Lowe was one of the leading authorities on early medieval palaeography, with his works including the monumental Codices Latini Antiquiores (1934-1971). Born in Russia, he settled in America as a child: his friendship with Einstein began with his appointment at the Institute for Advanced Studies in 1936. Lowe's descendants include the British journalist and politician Boris Johnson.

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