Details
Maimonides. Mishneh Torah (abridged version in Hebrew with German translation, compiled, annotated and translated by Leon Mandelstamm and issued under the auspices of the Tsarist government).
Petersburg, Carl Krayya, 1850, 17.5 x 10.7 cm.
Five volumes containing four (of the fourteen) books of the Mishneh Torah, apparently complete. Titlepage in Hebrew and German, vol. 1-3 containing an approbation by contemporary leading rabbis and writers, phrased to sound like a haskamah. Somewhat unexpectedly in this list of Maskilim the name of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, appears. Stained, soiled and foxed, occasional repairs and trimmings, further minor flaws. Four out of five volumes include owner's inscription on the German title-page and blind-tooled owner's stamp on the spine. Four out of five volumes bound in identical blind-tooled quarter-leather, occasionally rubbed and wormed, coloured edges.
"Fascinating example of the use of Maimonides for Haskalah purposes, an instructive guide to the limits of Tsarist censorship, and...an intelligent and subtle argument for the civic and religious reform of the Jews." (Michael Stanislawski, "The Tsarist Mishneh Torah: A Study in the Cultural Politics of the Russian Haskalah", American Academy for Jewish Research, Proceedings 50 (1983) p. 167.
Not in Zedner, Roest; not in J. Dienstag, "Mishneh Torah le-Rambam", in: Ch. Berlin, ed., Studies in Jewish Bibliography, History and Literature in Honor of I. Edward Kiev (New York 1971) p. 21-108.
See illustration (5)
Petersburg, Carl Krayya, 1850, 17.5 x 10.7 cm.
Five volumes containing four (of the fourteen) books of the Mishneh Torah, apparently complete. Titlepage in Hebrew and German, vol. 1-3 containing an approbation by contemporary leading rabbis and writers, phrased to sound like a haskamah. Somewhat unexpectedly in this list of Maskilim the name of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, appears. Stained, soiled and foxed, occasional repairs and trimmings, further minor flaws. Four out of five volumes include owner's inscription on the German title-page and blind-tooled owner's stamp on the spine. Four out of five volumes bound in identical blind-tooled quarter-leather, occasionally rubbed and wormed, coloured edges.
"Fascinating example of the use of Maimonides for Haskalah purposes, an instructive guide to the limits of Tsarist censorship, and...an intelligent and subtle argument for the civic and religious reform of the Jews." (Michael Stanislawski, "The Tsarist Mishneh Torah: A Study in the Cultural Politics of the Russian Haskalah", American Academy for Jewish Research, Proceedings 50 (1983) p. 167.
Not in Zedner, Roest; not in J. Dienstag, "Mishneh Torah le-Rambam", in: Ch. Berlin, ed., Studies in Jewish Bibliography, History and Literature in Honor of I. Edward Kiev (New York 1971) p. 21-108.
See illustration (5)