<<Elijah Ha’Adeni.>> Seder Azharoth [piyutim for the holiday of Shemini Atzereth].
Auction 94 |
Thursday, June 17th,
2021 at 11:00am
Rare & Excellent Hebrew Printed Books: From the Library of Arthur A. Marx
Lot 196
(INDIA).
<<Elijah Ha’Adeni.>> Seder Azharoth [piyutim for the holiday of Shemini Atzereth].
Amsterdam: Uri b. Aaron Halevi 1688
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
PRICE REALIZED $4,000
<<A rare copy of the first Hebrew book published for the use of the Jews of Cochin.>>
Following the advent of Dutch rule in India, the Sephardic community of Amsterdam sent a delegation led by Moses Pereira de Paiva to visit their religious compatriots in Cochin, situated along the southern Malabar coast. Torah Scrolls and other such necessities were provided and after de Paiva learnt of the special liturgical customs and rituals the Cochini Jews preserved in manuscript, he arranged that this particular home-grown collection of Festival poems be published back in Amsterdam.
Only one other copy of this work is known; presently located in the Bodleian Library, Oxford - yet it lacks the title-page. Therefore neither Steinschneider (Cat. Bodl. no. 4938.2) nor Fuks (Amsterdam no. 375) recorded a complete description. Unknown entirely to Yaari (viz. Hebrew Printing in the East (1940) p. 91 note 3).
See M.J. Heller, The Seventeenth Century Hebrew Book, Vol. II (2011) pp. 1132-33.