Auction 74 · Lot 123

(RaDa”K). Sepher HaShorashim [“Book of Roots” - lexicon to the Bible]

Estimate: $25,000–$30,000
Hammer price: Not recorded

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

author

KIMCHI, DAVID

printer

[Joshua Solomon ben Israel Nathan Soncino]

Place

Naples

Publication

1491

Description

Third edition. Title page within elaborate historiated woodcut border depicting floral motifs, cherubs and a lion. Printed in two columns. Square Hebrew type, excepting names of Biblical books and pericopes in rabbinic type. Entirely complete, including the final rare leaf following the colophon. A Wide-Margined Copy.

references

Vinograd, Naples 19; Steinschneider, col. 873, no. 44; Thes. A-69; Goff Heb-40; Offenberg 106; BMC XIII, p. 58; Iakerson 59.

summary

By the time this work came to press, Joshua Soncino had been expelled from the town of Soncino and settled in Naples were he competed directly with the printing establishment of the Gunzenhausers. He was aided in the production of this volume by Isaac ben Judah Quatorze, whose name appears in some copies in the colophon (f. 167v). The present copy makes no mention of Quatorze and has additional typographical variants on ff. 2,3,7,8,53. See Treasures of the Valmadonna Trust Library - Otzroth Ya’akov, Incunables no. 42.

ff. 168. Title page mounted affecting a few letters of text, some losses to the elaborately decorative frame, ff. 1-6 laid to size, previous owner’s marks, text supra-lined ff. 2-15, ff. 167-8 remargined, stained in places, corners rounded, some infilled. Modern blind-tooled and paneled morocco, titles gilt on spine. Housed in custom slip-case. Folio.

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