Tractate Shabbath.

AUCTION 68 | Thursday, April 07th, 2016 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Ceremonial Objects and Graphic Art

Back to Catalogue Download Catalogue

<Previous Lot

/349

Next Lot>

Lot 213

(TALMUD, BABYLONIAN).

Tractate Shabbath.

Hebrew manuscript written in square Oriental type on vellum. Two leaves (four pages) 44-46 lines per page composed in a single column. Corresponds to the published Talmud text of ff. 30r-32v (as per the Vilna foliation). <<The David Solomon Sassoon copy.>> Expert paper repairs with loss of text. Mounted within modern wrappers. Each leaf 8.5 x 10.5 inches.

Orient: 11th century

Est: $20,000 - $25,000

PRICE REALIZED $34,000

<<ONE OF THE EARLIEST EXTANT TALMUD MANUSCRIPTS. A FRAGMENT DISCOVERED IN THE CAIRO GENIZAH. CONTAINS MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED TEXTUAL VARIANTS.>> According to Igereth Rav Sherira Gaon, the Talmud was orally preserved exclusively, and it was only in the 10th century was it seen fit to record the text in written form. Accordingly, this Talmud fragment is among the very first texts to have ever appeared. In particular, this represents the earliest extant text that focuses upon the laws and observances of the Sabbath, a concept utterly sacrosanct to the traditions of the Jewish people, uniquely prese rving them through the millennia in both time and in space. See D.S. Sassoon, Ohel Dawid: Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library (London, 1932), Vol. I no. 521. <<Provenance:>> Sotheby Parke Bernet, The Collection of David Solomon Sassoon, 12th May, 1981, lot 34. Sotheby’s, Property from the Silberstein-Boesky Foundation, 3rd December, 2004, lot 3.