Kestenbaum & Company
Hebrew). The Mortimer Schiff - Salman Schocken Copy of the Estienne Hebrew Bible. A Beautiful Wide-Margined

Auction 36 · Lot 33

Hebrew). The Mortimer Schiff - Salman Schocken Copy of the Estienne Hebrew Bible. A Beautiful Wide-Margined

Estimate
$20,000–$30,000
Hammer price
$57,500

Historical auction record. Hammer prices exclude buyer’s premium and taxes.

author

(BIBLE,.

printer

Robert Stephanus (Estienne)

Place

Paris

Publication

1539-55

Description

Four volumes. Square Hebrew letters with nikud (vowel points). Commentary of R. David Kimchi (RaDa”K) in Rashi script. Hand-ruled with verses numbered by red. In Vol. IV, p.48 (Jeremiah) lone Latin marginalium. Vol. I with bookplate, “Ex Libris, Mortimer L. Schiff.” In all vols as well as stamps of “Siphriyath Schocken, Yerushalayim.” Exquisite contemporary ornate binding: Mottled calf, gilt extra, spine in compartments, all edges gilt and gauffered. Marbled endpapers. Housed in morocco slip-cases by Riviere & Son, “Exemplaire de le Marquis de Caumartin de Saint Ange” gold-stamped on spine

references

Vinograd, Paris 16; Darlow and Moule 5089

summary

A Fine Copy in a Superlative Binding. Purchased by Salman Schocken in the Mortimer Schiff Auction, Sotheby’s London, March 1938. Tipped in: Autograph Letter Signed in Latin by Paul Eber, 1548. pp.4. Brown ink on coarse paper. The German theologian Paul Eber (1511-1569), Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Wittemburg, was a friend of Martin Luther and Phillip Melanchthon. In our letter, Eber refers here to his book, Contexta Pupuli Iudaici Historia (1548), a handbook of Jewish History “Robert Estienne [was] the most outstanding figure in the Renaissance book trade in France. As a printer...he occupies today a chief place in the history of typography, and it is to him primarily that the Estienne dynasty owes its reputation in this field.” F. Schreiber, The Estiennes, An Annotated Catalogue (1982), p.45.
Vol. I (Pentateuch, 1543): pp. 579. Vol. II: (Early Prophets, 1544): pp. 501. Vol. III (Writings, 1540-55): pp. 151, (1 blank), 53, (3 blank), 59, (1 blank), 71, (1 blank), 180, 79, (3 blank). Vol. IV (Later Prophets, 1539-41): pp.124, 163, (1 blank), 139, (1 blank). (Daniel, 1540): 47, (1 blank). (Minor Prophets with commentary of R. David Kimchi, 1539-40): 66, (2 blank), 20, 44, 8, 14, (2 blank), 32, 15, (1 blank), 19, (1 blank), 16, 12, 59, (1 blank), 1-18. Lightly waterstained in places. Slightly shaken. 4to
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