Sifthei Yesheinim [bibliography]

BASS, SHABBETAI

David de Castro Tartas

Amsterdam

1678-80

First Edition. Title within fine engraved architectural border

Vinograd, Amsterdam 461; Mehlman, 1361; Fuks, Amsterdam 469

The First Hebrew Bibliography. This Copy with Rare Supplementary Prayers The Siddur found at the end of only a small number of copies of Sifthei Yesheinim present a bibliographical puzzle. It has been postulated by M. M. Zlatkin, that it was included in order to increase the appeal of the work to the non-bibliography minded book buyer. However Ch. Liberman in Kiryath Sepher vol. XXXVIII p.276 [= Ohel Rachel vol. I, p.370-371] proves that the Siddur, printed in 1678, was sold separately. By 1680, when Sifthei Yesheinim was ready for printing, Shabbetai Bass had a few copies left over, these he added to the Sifthei Yesheinim, removing the original title page In his article published for the Habermann Festschriften, Yad Leheman (1984) H.C. Zafren excitedly confides: “I can here report that the Hebrew Union College Library copy of the Amsterdam 1680 Pentateuch, the first edition of Bass’s Sifthei Chachamim, also has a prayer book bound in at the end. In this case, the prayer book has fourteen leaves.” See, The 1678 Siddur and the Sifthei Yesheinim: A Methodological Exercise, p.276