Viterbo, Asher. Be’nesu’ei Ha’chathan Hana’alah [Wedding Riddle]. Composed for the marriage of Pinchas ben Abraham Ha’kohen (Fellice Coen) and Guidicca Coen of Ancona.

AUCTION 24 | Tuesday, June 29th, 2004 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Ceremonial Art and Holy Land Maps Including Ceremonial Art from the Collection of Daniel M. Friedenberg

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Lot 78

(EPITHALAMIUM).

Viterbo, Asher. Be’nesu’ei Ha’chathan Hana’alah [Wedding Riddle]. Composed for the marriage of Pinchas ben Abraham Ha’kohen (Fellice Coen) and Guidicca Coen of Ancona.

Printed Broadside. Text in Hebrew. Large woodcut device depicting winged angel holding a garland and bugle. Single folio leaf. Framed Vivian B. Mann, Gardens and Ghettos (Berkeley, 1989), p. 281, no.161a; Frojmovic and Felsenstein, Hebraica and Judaica from the Cecil Roth Collection (Leeds, 1997), pp. 30-33, Nos. 12-13 (illustrated)

Italy: 18th century

Est: $2,000 - $3,000

PRICE REALIZED $2,600

Riddles in the form of poems became popular among Italian Jews in the mid-seventeenth century and remained an important literary genre through the mid-nineteenth century. The festivities at Italian Jewish celebrations frequently included riddle contests. Such riddles seem to have been a peculiarly Jewish invention, though they owed a debt to Italian and Spanish literature. These canny riddles were also composed for weddings to amuse the bride and groom, and were distributed to guests prior in order to prepare a solution. At the wedding celebration the guests would present their solutions, the winner being rewarded with a prize.