Auction 63 · Lot 86

Isaac ibn Sahula. Mashal HaKadmoni [collected fables] * WITH: Sepher HaTapu’ach [philosophy, attributed to Aristotle]

Estimate: $800–$1,200
Hammer price: $1,300

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

author

(FABLES).

printer

Professor Elsner

Place

Frankfurt o/Oder

Publication

1800

Description

More than 70 imaginative and fanciful half-page woodcut illustrations. Two titles within typographic borders

references

Vinograd, Frankfurt o/Oder 471.

summary

The Jewish Aesop’s Fables. A most distinctive Hebrew book. A collection of fables and puns with moral inferences all written in rhymed prose. The author uses animal fables as a means of moral allegory. Not only do the animals converse, but all are well-versed in the Bible and Talmud and conduct lengthy discourses on matters of science and philosophy. The remarkable illustrations are of specifically Jewish origin. “The illustrated Hebrew book par excellence.” A.J. Karp. From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress (1991) p. 125.

ff. 72, 81-100 (i.e., 98). Mispaginated (as are all copies) though complete. Light wear, neat marginal repair on final leaf. Contemporary boards, worn. Sm. 8vo.

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