114 240 (TALMUD, BABYLONIAN). Strack, Hermann L. (Ed.) Der Babylonische Talmud. Nach der Einzigen Vollständigen Handschrift München Codex Hebraicus 95. Two large volumes. Printed on regal paper. Ex-library, list of names (female donors) inscribed on opening blank. Original boards, light wear. Heavy folio. Leiden, 1912. $800-1200 ❧ Colossal facsimile of the monumental Munich Codex, the earliest complete manuscript of the entire Babylonian Talmud. It is the only recorded manuscript of the Talmud to have survived the wide-spread destruction of books in both 15th-century Spain and 16th-century Italy. Needless to say, the manuscript contains numerous and significant textual variants from the present received version; it formed the basis of R.N.N. Rabinovicz’s important Dikdukei Sofrim. 241 (TEN LOST TRIBES). Igereth HaSheluchah MeChachmei V’Rabbanei HaAschkenazim Sheb’Eretz Yisrael L’B’nei Moshe Rabbeinu V’Asereth HaShevatim [“Letter sent from the Aschkenazic sages and rabbis in the Land of Israel to the descendants of Moses and the Ten Tribes.”] Printed without a title-page. ff. 4. Modern boards. 8vo.[Vinograd, Amsterdam 2554]. Amsterdam, for Hirschel Lehren, 1830. $500-700 ❧ An extraordinary letter written by the renowned leader of the Old Yishuv, Israel of Schklow, on behalf of Baruch b. Samuel of Pinsk in his search for the remnants of the Ten Tribes. This published version details the development of the Oral Law, the bitter history of Exilic Israel, the struggle to resettle the Holy Land, and concludes with requests for prayer, charity and an increase in the number of righteous scholars resident in the Holy Land. In his search, R. Baruch traveled across Syria, Mesopotamia and Kurdistan, reaching Yemen in 1833. It was there, in San’a, he was executed under suspicion of espionage. See Yaari, Sheluchei Eretz Yisrael pp.147-48, 779-80; L. Jung, Men of the Spirit (1964) pp.75-6. Lot 242 242 TESEO, AMBROGIO DEGLI ALBONESI. Introdvctio in chaldaicam lingua[m], syriaca[m] atq[ue] armeenica[m] & dece[m] alias linguas. characterum differentiu[m] alphabeta, circiter quadraginta, & eoru[m] dem invicem co[n]formatio. Mystica et cabalistica qua[m]plurima scitu digna. Et descriptio ac simulachru[m] phagoti Afranij. FIRST EDITION. Title in red and black with impressive decorative woodcut borders. Two woodcut plates (ff. 178-9) depicting the phagotus (a form of the bassoon) invented by the author’s uncle, Afranio degli Albonesi. Marginal notations. ff. 251. Modern limp vellum. 4to.[Brunet I, 229.] Pavia, Giovanni Maria Simoneta, 1539. $8000-10,000 ❧ The author (1469-1540) was one of the first professors of Hebrew and Chaldaic in the University of Bologna, a humanist he was also a proponent of “Christian Kabbalah.” The present work was one of the earliest studies of Oriental languages. The bulk consists of an Introduction to Chaldean, Syriac and Armenian (ff. 9–192). To this is added an Appendix which includes the presentation of alphabets (fg. 193–213), including brief references to Coptic (called “Jacobite”) and Ethiopic (misleadingly called “Indian”) and comments on the ancestry of European languages, especially languages of Italy, including a discussion of Etruscan. The author himself designed for the Pavian printer the characters of the different languages (Hebrew, Chaldaic, Aramaic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Phoenician, Assyrian, Persian, etc). FUNDAMENTAL WORK FOR LINGUISTIC STUDIES.