Book of Isaiah. Judeo-German translation, with Hebrew commentary

AUCTION 44 | Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Graphic & Ceremonial Art

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Lot 294

(BIBLE).

Book of Isaiah. Judeo-German translation, with Hebrew commentary

Cursive Aschkenazic script. On ff. 83v. and 135r. Latin inscriptions by the censor Carolus Fischer. Translation by Meir Abranik. Commentary by Heinrich Josephsohn ff. (8), 7-135. Brown sepia ink on coarse paper. Light stains, some foxing. Blind-tooled crushed morocco with gold florets, central cartouche "Moshe Chanoch Halevi" in square Hebrew characters; distressed; gutter split. 4to

Prague: 1817

Est: $600 - $900

In the foreword, the Author, presumably Heinrich Josephsohn (based on the information provided by the Censor's inscriptions), writes that he is emulating the example of Moses Mendelssohn's Bi'ur to the Pentateuch. Though convinced of the value of David Friedlander's German translation of the Haphtaroth, it did not fit the needs of this edition. (Friedlander was a disciple of, and in some sense, successor to Mendelsssohn.) Each chapter of this manuscript is sub-divided in two: The Judeo-German translation is followed by the pure Hebrew Bi'ur to that chapter. That the author would have obtained the imprimatur of Prague's censor Carolus Fischer, indicates the work was being readied for print, however no bibliographic record exists of it