MENDELSSOHN, MOSES.

AUCTION 58 | Thursday, May 02nd, 2013 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts and Autograph Letters

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Lot 237

MENDELSSOHN, MOSES.

Nethivoth Hashalom vehu Chamishah Chumshei Torah [The Pentateuch; with Haphtaroth and Five Megiloth]. Translated and with Bi’ur commentary. Along with commentaries by Moshe Segal Landau (grandson of the Noda BeYehuda) and Wolf Meyer. Each volume with supplement of the Sabbath prayers. Light wear, ex-library. First volume with gutter split. Contemporary boards, rubbed. 8vo. Vinograd, Prague 1524.

Prague: S. Freund 1860-62

Est: $1,500 - $2,000

PRICE REALIZED $1,500

Titled Sepher Nethivoth Hashalom and more commonly known as the Bi’ur, Moses Mendelssohn’s revolutionary translation of the Pentateuch appeared in German in Hebrew characters while the commentary was composed in Hebrew. The commentary aimed to explain the translation choices made by Mendelssohn and drew heavily on traditional medieval Jewish Bible commentators. The translation, written in an elegant High German, was designed to enable the Jews of Germany to come closer to “general culture by giving them the best translation of the Holy Book that they ever had.” (Preface).