SEFER ARBA‘AH TURIM (HALAKHIC CODE), RABBI JACOB BEN ASHER, NEUSTADT HANAU: HANS JACOB HENNE, 1610
Auction Closed
November 20, 08:47 PM GMT
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
SEFER ARBA‘AH TURIM (HALAKHIC CODE), RABBI JACOB BEN ASHER, NEUSTADT HANAU: HANS JACOB HENNE, 1610
4 parts in 1 volume (11 1/2 x 7 7/8 in.; 292 x 200 mm): Part 1 (Orah hayyim): 117 folios (+1 blank); Part 2 (Yoreh de‘ah): 91 folios (+1 blank); Part 3 (Even ha-ezer): 59 folios (+1 blank); Part 4 (Hoshen ha-mishpat): 140 folios on paper. Title within elaborate architectural border with depictions of Moses and Aaron surmounted by an image of the Binding of Isaac; initial word(s) within border of typographic elements on 1:2r, 2:1r, 3:[1r], 4:1r; figurative lettering within ornamental frames on 1:9r, 2:6r, 3:4r, 4:7r; decorative elements on 1:2v, 3r [8r], 3:[1v], 3r, 4:1v, 138r-v, 139v; printed diagrams on 1:65r-66v, 68r-v, 70v-71r, 109v-110v; printed calendaric tables on ff. 1:75v-[76r]; periodic Latin marginalia and underlining in pen, mostly concentrated in Part 1 but also present in Parts 3 and 4; Hebrew notes in pencil on 3:5v, 16v. Very slight scattered staining; some browning; small stain on 1:[1r]; 1:2-[4] reinforced along gutter; small hole on 1:10, affecting a couple of letters; minor worming in lower margins of 1:[1]-110, 2:68-73; small repairs in upper-outer corner of 2:10 and in lower-outer corner of 4:117; self-censorship (blank spaces) on 2:32v, 35r; 2:48-49 stuck at head in gutter; a few words damaged on 2:66v; short tears in outer edge of 3:41 and lower edge of 4:30; small repair in upper edge of 4:[28], affecting a few words; small hole in outer edge of 4:30; 4:43-48 bound between 4:54-55; slight damage in outer edge of 4:139; 4:140 supplied (?) with repair in outer edge and tear repaired near outer margin, affecting legibility of some words. Early leather over board, worn along edges and on spine; joints starting; headband partially exposed; spine in five compartments with raised bands; red leather lettering piece on spine; yellow edges; contemporary paper rear flyleaf and pastedowns.
One of the first Hebrew books to feature Moses and Aaron on the title page.
Despite the antiquity and prestige of the Jewish community of Frankfurt am Main, Hebrew printing in that city did not begin in earnest until the latter half of the seventeenth century. Before that point, Frankfurt Jews were forced to produce their books elsewhere. In 1609, three such Jews – Yitshak Isaac Langenbach zum Krebs, Abraham zum gulden Schaaf, and Samuel zur weißen Rosen – petitioned neighboring Hanau to allow them to publish there. Their petition was successful, and they, together with a local Hanau Jew and the printer Hans Jacob Henne, were granted a Hebrew printing privilege for ten years in return for fifty gulden per annum. From 1610 until 1622, the Henne press issued twenty-seven titles, including the present lot, Rabbi Jacob ben Asher’s Sefer arba‘ah turim as published in Cremona in 1558 (see lot 30). This copy comes from the distinguished library of Shemariah Zuckermann of Mogilev (d. 1879), a philanthropist and bibliophile who collected and published many of the Gaon of Vilna’s writings.
Provenance
S[hemariah] Zuckermann, Mogilew (1:[1r], 9r, 20r, 117v, 2:1r, 6r, 91v, 3:[1r], 20r, 59v, 4:1r, 7r, 20r, 139v)
Literature
Stephen G. Burnett, “Hebrew Censorship in Hanau: A Mirror of Jewish-Christian Coexistence in Seventeenth-Century Germany,” in Raymond B. Waddington and Arthur H. Williamson (eds.), The Expulsion of the Jews, 1492 and After (New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1994), 199-222.
Gustav Könnecke, Hessisches Buchdruckerbuch (Marburg in Hessen: N.G. Elwert, 1894), 148-149.
[Dan Rabinowitz], “Aaron the Jewish Bishop,” Seforim Blog (April 12, 2016), available at: https://seforimblog.com/2016/04/aaron-jewish-bishop/.
Vinograd, Hanau 3
Herbert C. Zafren, “A Probe into Hebrew Printing in Hanau in the Seventeenth Century[,] or How Quantifiable Is Hebrew Typography?” in Sheldon R. Brunswick (ed.), Studies in Judaica, Karaitica and Islamica Presented to Leon Nemoy on his Eightieth Birthday (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1982), 273-285, at p. 283.
Herbert C. Zafren, “Hebrew Printing by and for Frankfurt Jews – to 1800,” in Karl E. Grözinger (ed.), Jüdische Kultur in Frankfurt am Main von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997), 231-271, at p. 235.