HOROWITZ, CHAIM BEN DOV-BER HALEVI. Sepher Chibath Yerushalayim [descriptions of the Holy Sites of Eretz Israel]

(ISRAEL, LAND OF)

Israel Bak

“Jerusalem” (Lemberg?)

“1844” (1870?)

SECOND EDITION. Woodcut printer’s device on title (Yaari, Printer’s Marks, no. 201)

Vinograd, Jerusalem 29; Halevy 23 (includes illustration of title)

Chibath Yerushalayim is a Jewish traveler’s guide to the Holy Land, with references to rabbinic literature. It was one of the first Hebrew books printed in Jerusalem by Israel Bak. The title of our edition is an exact copy of the Jerusalem edition. Shoshanna Halevy speculates the actual printing was done in Lemberg. She deduces this is a pirated edition due to the addition of a haskamah (encomium) by R. Aaron Moses mi-Geza Tzvi of Brody and a “Hakdamath ha-Me'asef” (Compiler's Forward), resulting in an extra page in our edition. See Halevy, The First Hebrew Books Printed in Jerusalem (1975), p. 15.