(Rada”k). Sepher ha-Shorashim [“Book of Roots”: Biblical Lexicon]

AUCTION 26 | Monday, November 22nd, 2004 at 1:00

Exceptional Printed Books, Sixty-Five Hebrew Incunabula: The Elkan Nathan Adler-Wineman Family Collection

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Lot 1

KIMCHI, DAVID BEN JOSEPH

(Rada”k). Sepher ha-Shorashim [“Book of Roots”: Biblical Lexicon]

FIRST EDITION. On the front blank there is a manuscript of what appears to be an alchemical formula complete with circular diagram. Besides the tell-tale mention of “zahav” (gold), the text at bottom contains the verse “Ha-tzur tamim pa'olo ki chol derachav mishpat (Deuteronomy 32:4). According to Raphael Patai, one finds in a typical Hebrew alchemical manuscript a procedure aimed at the transmutation of substances, lumped together with “charms, magic, incantations, conjurations, and divinations.” See R. Patai, The Jewish Alchemists (Princeton, 1994), p. 521 ff. (30 of 188). First and final leaves provided in facsimile. Incomplete leaves laid to size and extensively repaired. Modern calf-backed marbled boards. Folio Vinograd, Rome 9; Goff 38; Goldstein 5; Offenberg 104; Steinschneider, p. 863, no. 4821; Thesaurus A24; Wineman Cat. 1

(Rome: Obadiah, Menasseh and Benjamin of Rome 1469-72)

Est: $10,000 - $15,000

PRICE REALIZED $18,000

It is the opinion of A.K. Offenberg that the Sepher ha-Shorashim was the very first Hebrew book printed. By comparison to this Wineman copy, the copy of Sepher ha-Shorashim in JNUL has only 34 leaves; the JTSA copy has a fragment of just 2 leaves; and no part of it is in the possession of HUC. See Peretz Tishby, The Hebrew Incunabula in Israel in: Kiryath Sepher 59:4 (1984), p. 948, no. 8. This funademtal lexicographical work was an essential part of any scholar’s library in the 15th-16th centuries. It was printed three times before 1550, all three editions are contained here in the Wineman Collection (see also Lots 39 and 43)