(RABBINIC PORTRAITS).

Breslau, late 19th-century

“Die Grossen, Gelehrten Rabbiner Jsraels. The great learned rabbis of Israel.” Featuring bust portraits of the great Ashkenazic and Sephardic rabbis from the 12th to 19th centuries, with a larger, central image of Maimonides; the whole topped by ‘Crown of Torah.’ Hebrew (and some German) captions which include respective rabbi’s name and other information including: city, position, magnum opus and date of death.

A most interesting selection of 40 rabbinic portraits from the more well-known and celebrated (the Vilna Gaon, R. Jonathan Eybescheutz and the Chasam Sofer) to the less commonly depicted (Rabbis Naftali Hirsch Katzenellenbogen, Yedidya Tia Weil of Karlsruhe and David HaCohen de Azevedo). Printed by S. Schottlaender whose press operated from 1888-94. See A Mirror of Jewish Life: A Selection from The Moldovan Family Collection (Tel Aviv, 1999) no. 5.