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BIBLE, Old Testament, in Spanish. -- Biblia en lengua Espaola traduzida palabra por palabra dela verdad Hebrayca. Ferrara: Duarte Pinel (Abraham Usque) for Jeronimo de Vargas (Yom Tob ben Levi Atias), 1553.
2o (268 x 194 mm). Collation: *8 A-L8 M10 N-Z8 AA-PP8 QQ6 RR-ZZ8 AAA-CCC8 DDD10 s2. 411 leaves (of 412, lacking *8, second leaf of chronological table). Gothic type, double column. Large woodcut grotesque title border, woodcut title vignette of a storm-tossed galleon, 9-, 7- and 5-line woodcut initials. (Title border cropped at top, gutter strengthened slightly obscuring inner edge of border, wormhole to first few leaves, a few headlines cropped, mostly in second half, lower margin of *7 extended, repaired tears to B5, D2, Z7, ZZ7, ZZ8 and AAA1, bifolia CCC1.8, DDD1.8 and DDD2.7 rehinged, mostly marginal dampstaining, heavier staining with traces of mildew to first 6 leaves, last two leaves on guards and apparently resized, both stained and with marginal repairs catching a few letters.) Early 17th-century Dutch or German blind-tooled brown leather over wooden boards, covers panelled with intersecting blind fillets, leafy palmette roll, and geometrical interlace roll, central panel with small sun tools and central double-headed eagle tool, spine in compartments, the raised bands highlighted by parallel blind fillets continuing onto covers, later lettering-piece, edges stained green, two chased brass clasps with (non-uniform) catches (rubbed, small old repairs to upper cover and upper joint, joints cracked.) Provenance: YAB (early monogram on title-page and N2r); ?17th-century German inscription on front pastedown; the omitted text at the end of Leviticus vii.36 (F8v) written neatly in fore- and lower margins by a 17th or 18th-century owner; occasional 18th and 19th-century annotations; Graf Stolberg-Wernigerode (armorial inkstamp on title).
FIRST EDITION OF THE HEBREW BIBLE IN SPANISH. Produced for the use of Spanish-speaking Jews who had fled the Iberian states, the "Ferrara Bible" owed its existence to the city's liberal laws under the reign of Ercole II d'Este (1534-1559), which attracted Jews from Spain and Portugal as well as from the less hospitable Italian city-states. The Portuguese scholar-printer Abraham ibn Usque, who had taken refuge in Ferrara before 1550, abandoning there his Christian name Duarte Pinel along with Catholicism, published a number of Hebrew works of philosophy and theology from 1553-1557. His publication of a word-for-word Spanish translation of the Old Testament, intended to meet the needs of Spanish and Portuguese Marranos who knew no Hebrew, was financed by the Spanish Jew Yom Tob Atias. For the text Usque used an old Jewish translation previously known only in manuscript (a closely similar version had been included in the Polyglot Pentateuch published by Soncino in Constantinople in 1547, in Judeo-Spanish, i.e., a Hebrew transliteration of Spanish).
Two issues of the bible are known: the present copy belongs to the more common issue, dedicated to Ercole II and with the colophon dated 1553 and the printer's and publisher's names in their Christian forms. The rarer issue contains a dedication to "doa Gracia Naci," the wealthy and influential patroness of the Iberian Jews in Italy, and the colophon bears the Jewish names of the printer and his backer and the Jewish year 5513. Other variants occur apparently randomly and are probably the result of stop-press modifications rather than a deliberately "Jewish" versus "Christian" program: there are three variants for the translation of Isaiah vii.14 (fol. ZZ8): virgen (as in this copy), implying a "Christian" reading of Isaiah; the "Jewish" reading moca; and the variant ALMA, in capitals, an attempt to transliterate the original Hebrew word. The 2-leaf table to the Haftarot, or weekly readings, printed on a single sheet and usually bound as a separate quire at the end, does not appear in all copies and is QUITE RARE. A few verses were mistakenly omitted from the end of Leviticus vii.36 to the beginning of viii.7 (fol. F7v-F8r); this error is corrected by a cancel leaf in some copies. Uncorrected in this copy, the omitted verses have been supplied in manuscript by an 18th-century reader.
RARE, exceptionally so in an early binding and overall fine condition. Adams B-1254 (without quire s2); Darlow and Moule 8467; Palau 28940; Steinschneider 1320.
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FIRST EDITION OF THE HEBREW BIBLE IN SPANISH. Produced for the use of Spanish-speaking Jews who had fled the Iberian states, the "Ferrara Bible" owed its existence to the city's liberal laws under the reign of Ercole II d'Este (1534-1559), which attracted Jews from Spain and Portugal as well as from the less hospitable Italian city-states. The Portuguese scholar-printer Abraham ibn Usque, who had taken refuge in Ferrara before 1550, abandoning there his Christian name Duarte Pinel along with Catholicism, published a number of Hebrew works of philosophy and theology from 1553-1557. His publication of a word-for-word Spanish translation of the Old Testament, intended to meet the needs of Spanish and Portuguese Marranos who knew no Hebrew, was financed by the Spanish Jew Yom Tob Atias. For the text Usque used an old Jewish translation previously known only in manuscript (a closely similar version had been included in the Polyglot Pentateuch published by Soncino in Constantinople in 1547, in Judeo-Spanish, i.e., a Hebrew transliteration of Spanish).
Two issues of the bible are known: the present copy belongs to the more common issue, dedicated to Ercole II and with the colophon dated 1553 and the printer's and publisher's names in their Christian forms. The rarer issue contains a dedication to "doa Gracia Naci," the wealthy and influential patroness of the Iberian Jews in Italy, and the colophon bears the Jewish names of the printer and his backer and the Jewish year 5513. Other variants occur apparently randomly and are probably the result of stop-press modifications rather than a deliberately "Jewish" versus "Christian" program: there are three variants for the translation of Isaiah vii.14 (fol. ZZ8): virgen (as in this copy), implying a "Christian" reading of Isaiah; the "Jewish" reading moca; and the variant ALMA, in capitals, an attempt to transliterate the original Hebrew word. The 2-leaf table to the Haftarot, or weekly readings, printed on a single sheet and usually bound as a separate quire at the end, does not appear in all copies and is QUITE RARE. A few verses were mistakenly omitted from the end of Leviticus vii.36 to the beginning of viii.7 (fol. F7v-F8r); this error is corrected by a cancel leaf in some copies. Uncorrected in this copy, the omitted verses have been supplied in manuscript by an 18th-century reader.
RARE, exceptionally so in an early binding and overall fine condition. Adams B-1254 (without quire s2); Darlow and Moule 8467; Palau 28940; Steinschneider 1320.