Hebrew. PENTATEUCH). Chamishah Chumshei Torah.

(BIBLE

Officina Serpentis for the Soncino Gesellschaft

Berlin

1931-33

PRINTED ON VELLUM. PROBABLY EXTRA TO THE EDITION OF 856 (850 on paper and six on vellum). Complete in 146 leaves (ff.113 on vellum and ff.33 printed on paper). Woodcut decorative title page in blue, brown and black, initial word of each of the Fiv e Books surrounded by arabesques and printed in brown and black, few lines and words printed in red.

The most ambitious undertaking of the Soncino Gesellschaft der Freunde des juedischen Buches. The Bible was printed with a new typeface designed by Marcus Behmer and styled on the Prague Hagadah of Gershom Kohen. “It ranks among the most beautiful Hebrew books ever printed.” The intended completion of the entire Bible was aborted due to the rise of Nazism. See A.J. Karp, Library of Congress Catalogue pp. 31-34 (illustrated); L. Avrin, The Art of the Hebrew Book in the Twentieth Century, in: New York Public Library Catalogue, A Sign and a Witness (1988) p.135 (illustrated). This volume, probably a trial-copy is a most interesting example of the efforts exerted in attempting color printing on vellum. The printer was forced to print on paper stock when the experiment to use color on vellum was unsuccessful. For of particular interest are the half-title, title and the five opening pages of each Book in which the use of color printing on paper was successful while producing only faint tracings on the corresponding vellum leaves. Notably the first successful color printing on vellum was the Beaconsfield Press’s Szyk Hagadah of 1940. For a similar, trial-copy of this Soncino Bible see Christie’s, The Stuart B. Schimmel Collection of the Book Arts, 17th May 1991 lot 29.