Berachiah ben Natronai HaNakdan (Benedictus le Puncteur). Mishlei Shu’alim [“Fox Fables,” Hebrew version of Aesop’s Fables].

AUCTION 73 | Thursday, June 22nd, 2017 at 1:00

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

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Lot 114

(FABLES).

Berachiah ben Natronai HaNakdan (Benedictus le Puncteur). Mishlei Shu’alim [“Fox Fables,” Hebrew version of Aesop’s Fables].

<<FIRST EDITION.>> Title within architectural arch. With rare final leaf containing printer’s mark. ff. 87 (1). Lacking f.5 (from table of contents). Title-leaf loose with faint early signature along upper margin, opening three leaves starting, tear on lower portion of f. 60 affecting few letters, some staining. Contemporary tooled calf, endpapers dampsoiled. 12mo. Vinograd, Mantua 44; Mehlman 1261.

Mantua: Joseph ben Jacob of Padua 1557

Est: $2,000 - $3,000

Collection of fables synthesizing the European Aesopian tradition with animals who converse in a Biblical Hebrew comfortably interspersing their conversations with Talmudic aphorisms. Final three pages contain a description of the game of chess written in an elegant rhymed prose by Bonsenior ibn Yachya.