(Commonly and erroneously attributed to). Yosippon [historical narrative of the Second Temple period]

AUCTION 21 | Thursday, December 04th, 2003 at 1:00

Kestenbaum & Company Holds Inaugural Auction of Hebrew Printed Books & Manuscripts at Their New Galleries

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Lot 117

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 many unusual, finely wrought woodcut illustrations. Wide-margined copy. ff. 262 (of 515). Various owners signatures in Aschkenazi hands on upper left corners of various leaves throughout the book. Final leaf in manuscript. Modern boards. Thick 4to Vinograd, Zurich 1; 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

Zürich: Christoph Froschouer 1546

Est: $7,000 - $9,000

PRICE REALIZED $10,000

An exceptionally scarce edition. No copy in the JNUL. Apparantly no complete copy extant “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.” Zinberg, p. 230. The first Hebrew edition of the Yosippon was published in Mantua by Abraham Conat, c.1475. This pseudo-Josephus was the first secular Hebrew book ever printed