WEDNESDAY, 19 JUNE 1991
CODE JUDITH
AFTERNOON SESSION
AT 2.00 P.M. PRECISELY
PRINTED BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS
(LOTS 232 - 478)
PRINTED BOOKS
(LOTS 232 - 467)
In this year 1991 cultural life in The Netherlands is dominated by the impressive 'Amsterdam Venice Project', in which all major Amsterdam museums participate, and which seeks to underline the century-long connection between Amsterdam and Venice. To give but one example, the Jewish Historical Museum organized an exhibition on the Ghetto of Venice, in which items were shown from many private and public collections from all over the world. One of the items in that exhibition was a painting of the interior of a Northern-Italian synagogue, now offered for sale at Christie's Amsterdam. But the painting is not the only connection between the Amsterdam Venice Project and Christie's June 1991 Judaica sale. In light of the broad attention paid to Amsterdam and Venice, it was decided that in the printed books and manuscripts part of the auction also extra attention should be paid to Venetian and Amsterdam material, without excluding fine other material of course. This was not very problematic, as the majority of the books offered for sale here are from the renowned Hirschler Family Collection, of which the first part was auctioned in December 1990. This collection included an impressive number of Northern-Italian and Northern-Netherlandish imprints in general, and Venetian and Amsterdam in particular.
Dealing with Hebrew printing in Venice, the first name that comes to mind is that of the father of Hebrew printing in that city, Daniel Bomberg. With the help of many famous Jewish scholars this wealthy Christian printer from Antwerp published more than 220 works of which a fine choice is offered for sale here. Other Venetian printers are also well represented: Daniel Zanetti, Marco Antonio Giustiniani, Alvise Bragadini, and, especially, Giovanni di Gara. He presumably learned the art of Hebrew printing at the press of Daniel Bomberg, whose type he managed to acquire after Bomberg had left Venice for Antwerp in the late 1540s. A large selection from the more than 250 books produced by Di Gara's press is on sale now. Venice dominated Hebrew printing during the sixteenth century, but printers in other places -who, by the way, usually learned the printing trade in Northern Italy- also came to the fore. An example is the originally Moravian printer Isaac ben Aaron Prostitz, who spent most of his life in Cracow, where he gained a predominant position in Eastern-European Hebrew book-production. Several of his works may be found in this sale. From the beginning of the seventeenth Century onward Venice gradually lost its leading position in the world of the Hebrew book and for one reason or the other Venice imprints from exactly that period are usually rare. Here, however, many can be found. Venice's leadership was taken over by Amsterdam, where during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries hundreds of books printed in Hebrew type were produced: printed in Hebrew type, as Hebrew was not the only language used in Amsterdam imprints. In this auction quite a few of the Amsterdam imprints are in Yiddish.
Again stressing that only the majority, and not all the works, offered for sale are from Northern-Italy or the Northern-Netherlands, two items still deserve special mention. To begin with, an illuminated 1795 Modena ketubbah, characteristic of the Northern-Italian art of ketubbah decoration, and further the illuminated circumcision booklet, produced by the scribe Nethanel ben Aaron Segal in Hamburg in the year 1768 and written 'with Amsterdam letters', scrutinizingly imitating the printed type used in the famous Amsterdam Hebrew imprints.
Amsterdam and Venice; once dominating the world of the Hebrew book, now dominating Christie's June 1991 Judaica auction.
Drs. Emile G.L. Schrijver
Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana
Amsterdam University Library
Aaron ben Josef ha-Levi of Barcelona. Sefer ha-Chinnukh (on the 613 mitsvot).
Details
Aaron ben Josef ha-Levi of Barcelona. Sefer ha-Chinnukh (on the 613 mitsvot).
Venice, Giovanni di Gara, 1600-01, 19.8 x 14 cm.
228 leaves. Slightly soiled, minor browning and staining, trimmed without loss of text. Old inscriptions. Contemporary blind-tooled calf over bevelled wooden boards, old clasps missing, front cover detached, rubbed spine, sprinkled edges. Good binding copy.
StCB 4365,4; Zedner 4; Roest 4; Habermann, Di Gara, No. 201.
Venice, Giovanni di Gara, 1600-01, 19.8 x 14 cm.
228 leaves. Slightly soiled, minor browning and staining, trimmed without loss of text. Old inscriptions. Contemporary blind-tooled calf over bevelled wooden boards, old clasps missing, front cover detached, rubbed spine, sprinkled edges. Good binding copy.
StCB 4365,4; Zedner 4; Roest 4; Habermann, Di Gara, No. 201.