Pirush Hatorah [commentary to the Pentateuch]

AUCTION 7 | Tuesday, June 22nd, 1999 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art The Property of Various Owners

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Lot 289

BACHIAH BEN ASHER

Pirush Hatorah [commentary to the Pentateuch]

Edited by Solomon Bonfoi Zarfati. Two divisional titles each within ornate historiated woodcut borders (borrowed from the Neapolitan press of Francesco del Tuppo) ff. ** (of **), ff. *** supplied in manuscript in an old Yemenite hand. Marginal wear and light stains with occasional loss of few letters. Modern tan diced morocco, spine in compartments Vinograd, Naples 21; Mehlman 2; Offenberg 8; Freimann-Marx, Thesaurus A-74; Goff Heb-6; Iakerson, Ohel Hayim IN-4

Naples: Azriel b. Joseph Aschkenazi Gunzenhauser, 3rd July 1492

Est: $20,000 - $25,000

Second incunable edition. Of the first edition, printed just a few months earlier, only fragments are extant, found in Cincinnati (HUCL), New York (JTSL) and Jerusalem (Schocken). See Offenberg no. 7 Regarding the suggestion that it was the printer Gunzenhauser’s brother-in-law, Moses b. Isaac, who was the engraver who designed the decorative woodcuts found in this Naples edition, see A. Marx, Jewish Quarterly Review (1920-1) Vol. XI p.113. See also J. Bloch, Hebrew Printing in Naples (reprinted 1976) p.21. Title illustrated EJ, IV col.104