Hebrew Bible, Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1533–1528 [i.e., 1525]

530 leaves (8 x 5 1/2 in; 204 x 140 mm). collation: 1-17⁸, 18⁴, 19-66⁸, 67⁶= 530 leaves. pagination: (1), 2-139 (1), 141-399 (1), 401-459 (1), 461-528 (2)= 530 leaves, including the (usually absent) blanks. Four titles: Pentateuch, Former Prophets, Latter Prophets, Writings. Initial words set in ornate woodcut borders. Title page and a few other leaves very lightly stained, occasional foxing; minor losses first and final text leaves repaired and not affecting text. Numeration and Latin marginal notations added in manuscript: ff. 2-10 (Gen. 1-17), 194-216 (I Sam.), 278-289 (Is. 1-29). Marbled endpapers; edges gilt; gilt dentelles. Eighteenth century crimson morocco, panelled gilt; spine, in six compartments, lettered and decorated in gilt; boards scratched. Extremities rubbed.

Vinograd, Venice 100, 149; Habermann 95, 149. (See also: Roest: p.166).

fourth edition 

Daniel Bomberg, the celebrated printer of Hebrew books, was renowned for having established the earliest Hebrew press in Venice. Publishing more than 200 books over the course of three decades (1515-1549), his many accomplishments include the printing of the first Mikra'ot Gedolot, a four volume folio-sized Rabbinic Bible with commentaries (1517-18). In conjunction with his large format bibles, Bomberg, ever sensitive to the demands of the market, produced  single-volume quarto editions, without the rabbinic commentaries, making them both more affordable and more likely to appeal to a broader audience. The present volume attests to the success of Bomberg's strategy as he found it necessary to reissue his one-volume quarto bible editions several times (1521, 1525, 1533), within a few years of its initial publication in 1517.

Because these quarto editions were virtually identical, and because the Hebrew Bible edition comprises four discrete units (Pentateuch and Five Scrolls, Former Prophets, Latter Prophets, and Writings), Bomberg was able to use the sections interchangeably. All known extant copies of the fourth edition (including the present copy) bear the 1533 date on the title page and a 1528 colophon. (In fact, there was no 1528 edition and the colophon is actually from the 1525 edition, a result of a typesetter's error, misprinting "het" for "heh").

Based on the clarity of their type and layout, the quarto Bible editions of Daniel Bomberg have long been celebrated as among the most beautiful Bibles published in the sixteenth century.