Mashal Hakadmoni [“Proverb of the Ancient”]

AUCTION 3 | Tuesday, November 25th, 1997 at 1:00

Fine Hebrew Printed Books Duplicates from the Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary of America

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Lot 117

ISAAC IBN SAHULA.

Mashal Hakadmoni [“Proverb of the Ancient”]

Third edition. Eighty unusual woodcut illustrations (few repeated). Printer’s device on title (Yaari, Printer’s Marks no. 14). The Mayer Sulzberger copy (Halberstamm Collection). ff. 64. Lightly stained in places, few marginal tears, few leaves rehinged. Later calf, worn. 4to Vinograd, Venice 319; Adams I-180 (incomplete); A.M. Habermann, Kiryat Sepher vol. XXIX pp. 199-203; Amram, pp. 367-71; Roth, Jewish Art cols. 476-77; Pierpont Morgan Library, Hebraica from the Valmadonna Trust (1989) no. 32; National Library of Canada, The Jacob M. Lowy Collection (1981) no. 111; New York Public Library, A Sign and a Witness (1988) no. 181

Venice: Meir Parenzo circa 1547

Est: $8,000 - $10,000

PRICE REALIZED $8,500

“The illustrated Hebrew book par excellence.” A.J. Karp. From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress (1991) p. 125. Rare Venetian edition of a collection of allegories, fables and puns with moral inferences all written in rhymed prose. The remarkable illustrations are of specifically Jewish origin, most all of the early manuscripts extant are similarly illustrated, seemingly following the Author’s original 13th-century copy (now lost). The first printed edition of the Mashal Hakadmoni (Brescia, 1491), represents the first illustrated Hebrew book. See Christie’s New York, Hebrew Printed Books: Duplicates from the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 22nd May 1986 Lot 11.