Sepher HaMachbaroth [poetry]

AUCTION 53 | Thursday, December 08th, 2011 at 1:00

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

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Lot 144

IMMANUEL BEN SOLOMON OF ROME

Sepher HaMachbaroth [poetry]

FIRST EDITION. Alternating square Hebrew characters and cursive rabbinic (Rashi) script. With zodiacal illustrations within text of ff. 48r.-49r. Scattered marginalia including handwritten Hebrew designations in an Italian hand of each zodiacal illustration. ff. (141 of 160), lacking eight initial leaves including opening blank leaf and final eleven leaves. Some staining, marginal paper repairs, slight worming repaired touching some letters. Needs rebinding. Sm. 4to Vinograd, Brescia 3; Goff Heb-43; Offenberg 58; Carmilly-Weinberger, pp. 214-7

Brescia: Gershom ben Moses Soncino 1491

Est: $5,000 - $7,000

PRICE REALIZED $5,000

The first printed book of Hebrew poetry. The first appearance of the signs of the Zodiac in a Hebrew book. One of only two literary Hebrew incunabulae. Immanuel of Rome (c.1261-1368), known in Italian as Manoello Giudeo, modeled this literary work on the classic Sephardic poets. The Machbaroth contain 27 compositions in the nature of satires, letters, prayers and dirges. According to Cecil Roth, Immanuel was “the most remarkable and important figure of the Renaissance-period in the Jewish world.” See The Jews in the Renaissance (1959), pp. 89-103.