Sacred Splendor: Judaica from the Arthur and Gitel Marx Collection
Sacred Splendor: Judaica from the Arthur and Gitel Marx Collection
MINHOGIM (YIDDISH CUSTUMAL), SIMEON HA-LEVI GÜNZBURG, VENICE: GIOVANNI DI GARA, 1600-1601
Auction Closed
November 20, 08:47 PM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 40,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
MINHOGIM (YIDDISH CUSTUMAL), SIMEON HA-LEVI GÜNZBURG, VENICE: GIOVANNI DI GARA, 1600-1601
73 of 96 folios (7 3/8 x 5 1/2 in.; 188 x 140 mm) on paper. Twenty-eight beautiful full-size woodcut vignettes illustrating scenes from Jewish ritual life and practice (some of them repeats); twenty-two smaller woodcuts representing the twelve signs of the zodiac/labors of the months and Jewish figures performing various ritual functions (some of them repeats); eight woodcuts in facsimile on ff. 9r, 10r-v, 14r, 19r, 23v, 89r; chapter headings within decorative frames; some chapters end with decorative devices; Joseph Shalit’s printer’s device on f. 96v. Lacking ff. 1-12, 14-15, 18-19, 22-25 and most of ff. 89, 91-92 (ff. [1]-5 blank, ff. 6-12, 14-15, 18-19, 22-25, 89, 91-92 replaced in facsimile); staining throughout (see especially f. 53); corners rounded; numerous pages reinforced along gutter or mounted on guards; minor repairs in outer edges and gutters intermittently throughout; ff. 13, 16 remargined, with slight loss of text; tears repaired on ff. 13, 16, 49, 57-58, 72, 77-78, 81, 84, 86, 88, 90, 93-94, at times with loss of text; small repair in center of page on f. 27; small holes in text and/or woodcuts on ff. 27, 40, 42, 82, 85; one word replaced in facsimile on f. 33r; lower portions of ff. 79-80, 90 replaced in facsimile. Modern maroon blind-tooled calf, slightly scratched; spine in six compartments with raised bands; title, place, and date lettered in gilt on spine; modern marbled paper flyleaves and pastedowns. Housed in a matching maroon blind-tooled calf slipcase, lined with green velvet and slightly worn around the edges; lettering piece with place and date on spine.
An extraordinarily rare Yiddish book of customs featuring a unique series of woodcuts illustrating various facets of Jewish life in Renaissance Italy.
Due to its great commercial success, the first edition of Simeon ha-Levi Günzburg’s Minhogim (see lot 39) was followed quickly by a second in 1593, this latter one enhanced with a cycle of woodcut vignettes featuring representations of Jewish rituals and practices from the entire liturgical year. However, by the close of the century, when the time came to issue the book yet again, the original printing blocks from 1593 (minus the illustrations of the twelve signs of the zodiac/labors of the months) had apparently already left Venice, resurfacing in a Passover Haggadah published in 1606-1607 in Prague, where they would continue to be used into the 1660s. As a result, twenty-two new, far more artistically sophisticated and elaborate woodcuts were commissioned in Venice for the present edition. While their predecessors had pictured Jews in typical German dress, the 1600-1601 images reflect the realia of contemporary Italian Jewish life: in the Tish‘ah be-Av scene, for example, the architecture evokes the style of the Renaissance; in the Purim scene, the men wear the masks of the Italian commedia dell’arte; and in the wedding scene, the women have kerchiefs attached to their bonnets.
Though this Minhogim is, as stated on its title page, “much, much more beautiful than the original,” its woodcuts would never again be used at a premodern Jewish press. Instead, the many subsequent editions of Günzburg’s bestseller would be printed outside of Italy (perhaps because of the linguistic assimilation of Italian Ashkenazim) using either the 1593 blocks themselves or imitations and adaptations thereof. These images are thus extremely rare, even more so given that only four copies of this Minhogim are known to be held in public collections: the National Library of Israel, the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the British Library, and the Basel Universitätsbibliothek.
Provenance
Ekla (?) bar Asher Zirndorf (f. 63v)
Literature
Naomi Feuchtwanger-Sarig, “How Italian are the Venice Minhagim of 1593? A Chapter in the History of Yiddish Printing in Italy,” in Michael Graetz (ed.), Schöpferische Momente des europäischen Judentums in der frühen Neuzeit (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter, 2000), 177-205, at pp. 201-203.
A.M. Habermann, “The Jewish Art of the Printed Book,” in Cecil Roth (ed.), Jewish Art: An Illustrated History, revis. Bezalel Narkiss (London: Vallentine, Mitchell, 1971), 163-174, at pp. 170-171.
A.M. Habermann, “Ha-madpis yisra’el ha-zifroni u-beno elishama u-reshimat ha-sefarim she-nidpesu al yedeihem,” in Perakim be-toledot ha-madpisim ha-ivrim ve-inyanei sefarim (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 1978), 215-292, at p. 259 (no. 42).
A.M. Habermann and Isaac Yudlov, Ha-madpis juan di gara u-reshimat sifrei beit defuso, [5]324-[5]370 (1564-1610) (Lod: Mekhon Habermann le-Mehkerei Sifrut, 1982), 102 (no. 207).
Chone Shmeruk, “Defusei yidish be-italyah,” Italyah 3,1-2 (1982): 112-175, at pp. 166-167 (no. 27), 169.
Chone Shmeruk, “Ha-iyyurim min ha-minhagim be-yidish, venetsyah [5]353/1593, be-hadpasot hozerot bi-defusei prag be-me’ah ha-17,” Studies in Bibliography and Booklore 15 (1984): 31-52, at p. 34 (no. 3).
Chone Shmeruk, Ha-iyyurim le-sifrei yidish ba-me’ot ha-16-ha-17: ha-tekstim, ha-temunot ve-nim‘aneihem (Jerusalem: Akademon, 1986), 13-15, 33, 42-46, 50-55, 81.
Chava Turniansky, Erika Timm, and Claudia Rosenzweig (eds.), Yiddish in Italia (Milan: Associazione italiana Amici dell’Università di Gerusalemme, 2003), 86-87 (no. 42).
Vinograd, Venice 928