N08814

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Lot 72
  • 72

Psalterium, Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1515

Estimate
12,000 - 15,000 USD
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Description

  • Vellum
66 leaves (8 1/4 x 6 in.; 210 x 180 mm). COLLATION: [ ]2, a-h4, j-q4 =66 leaves. PAGINATION: [2], 1-64. Printed in black and red; four decorated initials, one historiated. Latin with some Hebrew words in margin. Hebrew alphabet in margin at Psalm 119, pp. 53-56. Owners' notes on title page and f.1; owner's stamps on title page. Some minor worming, not affecting text. Limp vellum.

Literature

Habermann, 1; Vinograd Venice, 3 "heh".;  Bruce Nielsen, "Daniel van Bombergen, a Bookman of Two Worlds," in The Hebrew Book in Early Modern Italy, ed. Joseph Hacker and Adam Shear. 2011

Catalogue Note

FIRST BOOK PRINTED BY DANIEL BOMBERG, FATHER OF HEBREW PRINTING IN VENICE 

As the first printer of Hebrew books in Venice and the first non-Jewish printer of Hebrew titles anywhere, Bomberg's numerous later accomplishments included the first edition of the Babylonian Talmud in 1519-1523, and the first three editions of the Great Rabbinic Bible (1517-18, 1524-25, 1547-48). When his press ceased to operate in 1548-49, it had published more than two hundred and fifty titles. But it was this book of Psalms of 1515 that was the first of Bomberg's Venetian imprints and the first to contain Hebrew words and letters. The volume was printed at the press of Hermann Liechtenstein, as Bomberg did not yet have a privilege to publish.