Mishlei Shu’alim [“Fox Fables”: Hebrew version of Aesop’s Fables]

AUCTION 46 | Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, & Graphic Art

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Lot 56

BERECHIAH BEN NATRONAI HANAKDAN.

Mishlei Shu’alim [“Fox Fables”: Hebrew version of Aesop’s Fables]

With engraved frontispiece of the Animal Kingdom. Title in red and black. Latin and Hebrew on facing pages. pp.(18), 436 (mispaginated but complete). Ex-library, lightly browned. Contemporary vellum. 12mo Vinograd, Prague 443

Prague: Typographia Universitatis 1661

Est: $600 - $900

PRICE REALIZED $600

Berechiah (end 12th-13th century) at different times lived in Normandy and England. Berechiah's most celebrated work is Mishlei Shu'alim, in which he made use of the French fable collection Ysopet by Marie de France (c. 1170) and the lost Latin translation of Aesop, Romulus. This European Aesopian tradition was married to the Biblical and Talmudic tradition, with the result that the animals converse in a Biblical Hebrew interspersed with Talmudic quotations.