A Maskilic Miscellany. Consisting of a Hebrew essay, poetry, a play; along with tributes to Sir Moses Montefiore, all bound in one volume.

Auction 90 | Tuesday, July 21st, 2020 at 1:00pm
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Graphic & Ceremonial Arts

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Lot 204
(HASKALAH).

A Maskilic Miscellany. Consisting of a Hebrew essay, poetry, a play; along with tributes to Sir Moses Montefiore, all bound in one volume.

Both manuscript and printed. Hebrew throughout. pp. 280. Variously worn. Contemporary boards, scuffed and rubbed. 8vo.

Vilna: 1827-67

Est: $600 - $900
PRICE REALIZED $1,100
The first section of the volume is an autograph manuscript by Mordechai Aaron Ginzburg (1795-1846) of his work Chamat Damesek (published in 1860), about the Damascus Blood Libel. <<*>> Following, is Harisut Troya, Micha Joseph Lebensohn’s partial translation of Virgil’s Aeneid. <<*>> After that is diverse poetry by Lebensohn (1828-52), the promising poet son of Vilna’s Adam HaKohen. <<*>> Next is a long poem by Jacob Eichenbaum (1796-1861). <<*>> Unsigned and written in an unusually beautiful hand is the play She’erith Yehuda, Solomon Judah Rapoport’s translation of Racine’s drama Esther (originally published in Bikurei Ha’Ittim in the late 1820s). <<*>> Bound at the end is an ode to Sir Moses Montefiore, Tehilla LeMoshe (Vilna 1867) by Yitzchak Isaac Kovner, with a handwritten inscription from the author to future Yiddish novelist Nahum Meir Schaikewitz (1849-1905, aka “Shomer.”).