Berachiah ben Natronai HaNakdan (Benedictus le Puncteur). Mishlei Shu’alim [“Fox Fables” a Hebrew version of Aesop’s Fables]
AUCTION 83 |
Thursday, June 20th,
2019 at 1:00pm
Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Holy Land Maps, Ceremonial Objects, Fine & Graphic Art
Lot 54
(FABLES).
Berachiah ben Natronai HaNakdan (Benedictus le Puncteur). Mishlei Shu’alim [“Fox Fables” a Hebrew version of Aesop’s Fables]
Mantua: Joseph ben Jacob of Padua 1557
Est: $5,000 - $7,000
Collection of fables synthesizing the European Aesopian tradition with animals who converse in a Biblical Hebrew, comfortably interspersing their conversations with Talmudic aphorisms.
Final three pages contain a description of the game of chess written in an elegant rhymed prose by Bonsenior ibn Yachya. For a brief discussion of the author and summary of the text, see M. Steinschneider, Schach bei den Juden (1873) pp. 86-7; and V. Keats, Chess, Jews and History (1995) pp. 182-85.