Sacred Splendor: Judaica from the Arthur and Gitel Marx Collection
Sacred Splendor: Judaica from the Arthur and Gitel Marx Collection
PSALMS, AMSTERDAM: MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL AND HENRICI LAURENTI, 1634
Auction Closed
November 20, 08:47 PM GMT
Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
PSALMS, AMSTERDAM: MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL AND HENRICI LAURENTI, 1634
132 folios (4 x 2 3/4 in.; 102 x 68 mm) (collation: i-xvii8 [i1-3 and xvii8 are blanks]) on paper; modern foliation in pencil in Arabic numerals in upper-outer corner of recto; headers and catchwords; psalm numeration of psalms 2-3, 145-150 set off from text; psalm numeration of psalms 4-144 printed in-line with text; early psalm and verse numeration in pen in Arabic numerals. Title within elaborate architectural frame; first word of psalm 1 within decorative frame on f. 2r; stichographic layout of verses. Slight scattered staining; light dampstaining in outer margins; some dogearing; occasional smudging of ink. Early vellum over board, stained and worn; some quires beginning to separate from binding but maintaining their integrity; early paper flyleaves and pastedowns; remnants of wax ownership seal on pastedown of lower board.
The first independent Hebrew psalter printed in Amsterdam.
Having completed an unvocalized octavo edition of the Hebrew Bible in 1631 and begun a new, vocalized quarto version the same year (finished in 1635), Menasseh Ben Israel would go on to produce the present sextodecimo vocalized psalter in 1634. Like the pointed Bible, this edition of the Psalms seems to have been intended for both Jewish and Christian markets, as evidenced by these books’ inclusion of Latin titles. (Interestingly, Fuks and Fuks-Mansfeld note that some copies of this work do not bear the Latin imprint.) Indeed, the present exemplar apparently belonged to a Christian library, as can be deduced from the manuscript numeration of the psalms in Arabic numerals next to their printed Hebrew-character equivalents. This title must have achieved a significant measure of success, given that one year later Ben Israel published a vincesimo-quarto-format vocalized psalter and that his sextodecimo edition was reissued by his son in 1646.
Provenance
Jehonathan (?) (front flyleaf)
Literature
Lajb Fuks and Renate G. Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Netherlands[,] 1585-1815: Historical Evaluation and Descriptive Bibliography, vol. 1 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1984), 105, 121 (no. 160).
Steven Nadler, Menasseh ben Israel: Rabbi of Amsterdam (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018), 51-52.
Vinograd, Amsterdam 32
http://cf.uba.uva.nl/en/collections/rosenthaliana/menasseh/19b7/index.html