Former Prophets (Nevi’im Rishonim). With Targum Jonathan and commentaries by David Kimchi (Rada”k) and Levi ben Gershom (Ralba”g or Gersonides). * Accompanied by: Two-leaf fragment of Joshua (15:42-63; 17:15-18) on vellum
AUCTION 26 |
Monday, November 22nd,
2004 at 1:00
Exceptional Printed Books, Sixty-Five Hebrew Incunabula: The Elkan Nathan Adler-Wineman Family Collection
Lot 62
(BIBLE)
Former Prophets (Nevi’im Rishonim). With Targum Jonathan and commentaries by David Kimchi (Rada”k) and Levi ben Gershom (Ralba”g or Gersonides). * Accompanied by: Two-leaf fragment of Joshua (15:42-63; 17:15-18) on vellum
Leiria: Dom Samuel de Ortas and Sons 1494
Est: $50,000 - $60,000
PRICE REALIZED $45,000
One of the last Hebrew books printed before the Portuguese Exile of 1497. It is the most voluminous of all Hebrew incunables.
With the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, neighboring Portugal took its place as the center of Hebrew printing in the Iberian peninsula. Thus the fortified town of Leiria, less than a hundred miles North-East of Lisbon, now became a source of Hebrew books. Between the years 1492-96, Samuel de Ortas, a native of Orthez, France, together with his three sons, produced a total of seven Hebrew titles. But de Ortas' most famous creation would be in Gothic letters. That would be the Latin version of the Spanish Jew Abraham Zacuto's astronomical table, Almanach Perpetuum, which it is said guided Christopher Columbus on his monumental voyage to America. See J. Bloch pp. 36-40; M. Terry, Jewes in America, New York Public Library (2004) p. 2, no. 3: (Abraham Zacuto, Almanach Perpetuum Celestium Motuum [Leiria: Abraham D'Ortas, 1496])