Mishlei Shu’alim [“Fox Fables”]

AUCTION 2 | Tuesday, June 03rd, 1997 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art Including Property from a Dutch Private Collector and the Late T. Nachum Gidal

Back to Catalogue

<Previous Lot

/360

Next Lot>

Lot 209

BERACHIAH BEN NATRONAI HANAKDAN [i.e. Benedictus le Puncteur(?)]

Mishlei Shu’alim [“Fox Fables”]

FIRST EDITION. Title within architectural arch ff.87(1). Title neatly repaired, lower portion of final leaf removed without affecting printer’s device, modern calf, 12mo Not in Adams; Vinograd, Mantua 44; Mehlman 1261

Mantua: Joseph ben Jacob of Padua 1557

Est: $4,000 - $5,000

Collection of fables synthesizing the European Aesopian tradition with animals who converse in a Biblical Hebrew interspersed with Talmudic quotations. Final 3 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 (illustrated)