Hebrew). Chamishah Chumshei Torah [Pentateuch]. With Five Scrolls and Haphtaroth

(BIBLE

Caspar Steen

Amsterdam

1693

Title surrounded by verses. Separate title for Haphtaroth. Very small type for which Steen was celebrated, with nikud. First word in each book within typographic border. Tailpiece

Vinograd, Amsterdam 602; Fuks 551(with variations, see below); not in Darlow and Moule

FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED BY CASPAR STEEN - A VISUAL DELIGHT. The House of Caspar Steen in Amsterdam was a unique phenomenon in the world of eighteenth century printing. Steen was the only non-Jew in this era to print exclusively Hebrew books. See Fuks, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Nertherlands 1585-1815 (1987), p. 416. The unique format of this Bible edition, tall and narrow - later emulated by bibliophile Ephraim Deinard, for one - makes for an extremely esthetic book. Our copy differs from that of Fuks in a few respects: 1) According to our title, the work was commissioned by Antony Steen (son of Caspar Steen), not by Jacob b. Moses Raphael de Cordova, as in Fuk’s title; 2) In our title for the Haphtaroth, there is no mention of Caspar and Antony Steen; neither do we have the error “giGath egoz” in the chronogram, but rather the correct spelling “giNath egoz”; 3) Though we have the notice of the compositor, Joseph (not Jacob!) ben Moses Segal of Hamburg, we do not have the colophon “Be-Amsterdam bi-defus u-be-veith Caspar Steen”; and finally, 4) In our copy, the final three leaves (ff.325-327) are numbered, as opposed to Fuk’s copy where they are unnumbered.