Auction 70 · Lot 304
(TALMUD, BABYLONIAN).
- Estimate
- $20,000–$30,000
- Hammer price
- $40,000
Historical auction record. Hammer prices exclude buyer’s premium and taxes.
printer
Immanuel Benveniste
Place
Amsterdam
Publication
1644-47
Description
Talmud Bavli. With commentary of Rashi, Tosaphoth, Piskei Tosaphoth. Compendium by Asher b. Jehiel, commentary on the Mishnah by Moses Maimonides, plus index of decisions “Ein Mishpat.”
A MAGNIFICENT, WIDE-MARGINED DELUXE SET. PRINTED ON THICK PAPER AND A THIRD LARGER THAN BENVENISTE’S STANDARD ISSUE.
references
Vinograd, Amsterdam 87-101, 103-5, 108, 113, 117-135 and 137; Fuks, Amsterdam 216; Rabbinovicz, Talmud pp. 93-5; M.J. Heller, The Seventeenth Century Hebrew Book (2011) pp. 592-3.
summary
A RARE BIBLIOPHILIC SET OF THE FIRST PRINTING OF THE TALMUD IN AMSTERDAM.
Formerly in the collection of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews, with institutional morocco label on most upper covers.
This unique set was lavished with extraordinarily high production values. The standard Benveniste Talmud edition was recently sold by Kestenbaum & Company (Sale 69, lot 177), the present set is a considerably more dramatic production. The quality of paper utilized, the extraordinarily generous margins of each and every leaf, the lavishness of the binding, all would have taken Benveniste a considerable amount of additional attention to detail and clearly was custom prepared for a person of great note.
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Ex-library, browned and dampstained. Original uniform blind-tooled contemporary calf over heavy wooden boards, upper covers with titles in gilt, hinges present although most clasps lacking, recently rebacked, new endpapers, rubbed. Folio.
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