A SET OF LITURGICAL AND CUSTUMAL WORKS ACCORDING TO THE POLISH RITE, VENICE: GIOVANNI CAJON FOR PIETRO AND LORENZO BRAGADIN, 1616
Auction Closed
November 20, 08:47 PM GMT
Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
A SET OF LITURGICAL AND CUSTUMAL WORKS ACCORDING TO THE POLISH RITE, VENICE: GIOVANNI CAJON FOR PIETRO AND LORENZO BRAGADIN, 1616
6 parts in 4 volumes (6 1/4 x 4 1/8 in.; 158 x 105 mm): Vol. 1 (Tefillot mi-kol ha-shanah): 235 of 238 folios (foliation: [1]-[182], 1-56); Vol. 2 (Yotserot and Kinot): 162 folios (foliation: [1]-120, [1]-42); Vol. 3 (Seder tehillim and Seder ma‘amadot): 107 folios (foliation: [1]-55, [1]-52); Vol. 4 (Minhagim): 72 folios on paper. Six title pages featuring elaborate architectural borders; initial words within borders of typographic ornaments on ff. 97v, 151v, 1r of Tefillot mi-kol ha-shanah, f. 1v of Seder tehillim, and f. 2r of Seder ma‘amadot; modern foliation in pencil in Arabic numerals in all 6 parts. Vol. 1 lacking ff. 168, 179-180; slight scattered staining in Vols. 1, 3-4; pages closely cropped in all 4 volumes, sometimes affecting headline; (tape) repairs in gutters and outer edges of numerous folios of Vol. 1, mostly toward the front and usually not affecting text, as well as in outer edges of Vol. 3, not affecting text, and at head of ff. [64-72] of Vol. 4; small tape repairs on f. 12v of Kinot, f. 21r of Seder ma‘amadot, and ff. [55r], 68v-69v, 71r-v of Minhagim, the latter with slight loss of text; f. 72 of Minhagim remargined. All 4 volumes bound in modern vellum over board; titles, place, and date lettered in black on spines; modern paper flyleaves and pastedowns. Housed in a matching decorated paper-lined vellum slipcase, slightly soiled.
In 1578, the Krakow printer Isaac Prostitz published a series of works that, taken together, contained virtually all the Polish-rite liturgical texts a committed Jew would need throughout the year: a siddur with prayers for weekdays, Sabbaths, New Moons, festivals, and the High Holidays, as well as a Passover Haggadah, Pirkei avot, selihot (penitential prayers), and various occasional devotions; yotserot (liturgical poems) for special Sabbaths and festivals; the psalter divided into seven parts so that one could complete the entire book in one week; ma‘amadot, a selection of passages from the Bible, Mishnah, and Talmud, also divided according to the day of the week; kinot (dirges) recited on Tish‘ah be-Av; and Rabbi Isaac Tyrnau’s (fifteenth century) Minhagim, a classic compilation of Eastern Ashkenazic customs and practices. The production of these volumes as a set proved successful, and in 1591 in Venice the series was reissued, with some modifications, by Giovanni di Gara. (A second di Gara edition may have appeared in 1598.) The present lot is a near-complete copy of the 1616 edition printed by Giovanni Cajon, who inherited di Gara’s types and used di Gara’s work as a model for his own.
Provenance
Salman Schocken (Minhagim f. 72v)
Jewish National and University Library (Minhagim f. 72v)
Literature
Chaim and Betzalel Stefansky, Sifrei yesod: sifrei ha-yesod shel ha-sifriyyah ha-yehudit ha-toranit (n.p.: Chaim and Betzalel Stefansky, 2019), 111 (no. 399).
Vinograd, Venice 1088, 1091-1092, 1094, 1096-1097