Yosippon [historical narrative of the Second Temple period]

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 129

JOSEPH BEN GORION (Commonly and erroneously attributed to)

Yosippon [historical narrative of the Second Temple period]

FIRST EDITION with Yiddish translation (printed in Wayber-taytsch type). Prepared by Michael Adam. Replete with finely wrought woodcut illustrations. Wide-margined copy. The Judah A. Joffe copy (with his marginal annotations throughout) ff. 492 (of 515), lacking 7 (unnumbered) preliminary leaves, following 5 prelims. bound in at end, lacking ff. 9, 34, 35, 41, 49, 58, 59, 124, 481, 484-488 and 514-15. Sig. XX:4 misbound, Stained and wormed in places, several leaves taped occasionally with significant loss of text. Modern boards. Thick 8vo Vinograd, Zurich 1 (no copy in the JNUL); Vischer, Zuriche Druckschriften, no. C-353; E.C. Rudolphi, Die Buchdrucker-familie Froschauer (1869) no. 330; Deinard, Atikoth Yehudah p. 22 (noting the Sulzberger copy in the JTSAL); St. Cat. Bodl. no. 6033. col. 1551 (“Ed. rarissima”); not in Adams

Zurich: Christoph Froschouer 1546

Est: $3,000 - $5,000

PRICE REALIZED $7,500

“A truly splendid monument of the Yiddish book-printing art. With its richly illustrated woodcuts, it is in general the most beautiful printed work in Old-Yiddish literature.” see Zinberg, p. 230. An exceptionally scarce edition. The first Hebrew edition of the Yosippon was published in Mantua by Abraham Conat, c.1475 (eight complete copies extant). This pseudo-Josephus was the first secular Hebrew book ever printed