Description
- Paper, Ink, Leather Binding
466 leaves (6 1/4 x 3 7/8 in.; 168 x 100 mm). Elaborately hand-colored title page; additional hand-colored title page prior to book of haftarot; fifteen hand-colored head and tailpieces; letterpress title-page in Hebrew and Latin with hand-colored decorative element. FOLIATION: [10], 2-327 [2], 329-446 [10]. Owner's inscription on flyleaf. Some cracking at gutter. Edges gilt and gauffered. Gilt tooled green morocco, lightly rubbed.
Literature
Vinograd, Amsterdam 1292; Gans, Memorbook p.186, no.10 (illustrated).
Catalogue Note
Prized by collectors and scholars alike on account of its beautiy and accuracy, this 1726 edition of
Tikkun Soferim comprises the Pentateuch and the Haftarot for the entire year. The present lot also includes the prefatory material not found in most other copies. Also present is the approbation of Rabbi Solomon Ayllon which was removed from many copies because of his alleged Sabbatian tendencies. At the end of the volume too, there is additional material including a treatise on the calendar by Solomon Olivera.
The two meticulously hand-colored rococo title pages were engraved by Bernard Picart, the only Hebrew book for which he prepared engravings. He was of course intimately familiar with the Jewish Community in Amsterdam where his magnum opus, Ceremonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, had first appeared in 1723. The first title page depicts a pair of putti supporting an open Torah Scroll, while another pair supports a crown. The cartouches below portray episodes from the lives of the biblical characters: Samuel, Moses and David, an allusion to the names of the three sponsors of the edition: Samuel Rodrigues Mendes, Moses Sarfati and David Gomes da Silva. A second hand-colored title page precedes the haftarot section and there are fifteen hand-colored head- and tail-pieces.
