F INE J UDAICA . PRINTED BOOKS &MANUSCRIPTS K ESTENBAUM & C OMPANY TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20TH, 2005 K ESTENBAUM & COMPANY . Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art Lot 315 Catalogue of F INE JUDAICA . PRINTED BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS To be Offered for Sale by Auction on Tuesday, 20th September, 2005 at 3:00 pm precisely ——— Viewing Beforehand on Sunday, 18th September: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Monday, 19th September: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Tuesday, 20th September: 10:00 am – 2:30 pm A Hebrew Index is Available Upon Request This Sale may be referred to as “Polhemus” Sale Number Thirty. Illustrated Catalogues: $35 • $42 (Overseas) Kestenbaum & Company Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art . 12 West 27th Street, 13th Floor, New York, NY 10001 • Tel: 212 366-1197 • Fax: 212 366-1368 E-mail: [email protected] • World Wide Web Site: www.Kestenbaum.net K ESTENBAUM & COMPANY . Chairman: Daniel E. Kestenbaum Operations Manager : Georgina Keenan Client Accounts: S. Rivka Morris Press & Public Relations: Jackie Insel Printed Books, Manuscripts & Autographed Letters: Rabbi Eliezer Katzman Rabbi Bezalel Naor Ceremonial Art: Aviva J. Hoch (Consultant) Catalogue Art Director & Photographer: Anthony Leonardo Auctioneer: Harmer F. Johnson (NYCDCA License no. 0691878) ❧ ❧ ❧ For all inquiries relating to this sale please contact: Daniel E. Kestenbaum ❧ ❧ ❧ ORDER OF SALE Printed Books: Lots 1 - 329 Manuscripts: Lots 330 - End of Sale Front Cover Illustration: Arthur Szyk, The Book of Kalisz. Lot 309 Back Cover Illustration: Rabbeinu Yerucham. Constantinople, 1516. Lot 323 A list of prices realized will be posted on our Web site, www.kestenbaum.net a few days following the sale. — PREFACE — A large number of books in this Auction are consigned from the library of a dedicated bibliophile. The notes below were provided by the gentleman’s son. The family prefers to remain nameless. My father was born in New York at the turn of the 20th-century to immigrant Jews from a small European shtetl. His father, proud to raise his family in diffi cult times while remaining thoroughly Shomrei-Shabbos, did not however, live to see his children grown. The family were active in the early days of Agudath Israel and the Vaad Hatzalah, and many immigrants, during and after the Shoah, spent their first days in America sleeping in the family’s modest apartment. Prior to the Second World War, few Lomdishe-sepharim were printed in America. My father was impressed by his father-in-law’s small collection of sepharim brought to the United States from Europe, and so, when newly married, he began to actively purchase sepharim from which to study. He could not bear to think that any sepher might be discarded or given to those who would not appreciate it. Gradually, over many years, his modest collection became a library brimming with treasures. My earliest memories are fi lled with images of sepharim. As a child, walking with my father to shul on Shabbos or Yom Tov, my hand in his, his other hand clutching his Tallis-bag, weighed down by an ever present sepher. I can still see him in shul on Rosh Hashana, scrutinizing the commentaries in his beloved Machzor-Rome. I picture my father on Friday night, tired after a long and strenuous work-week, always having the energy to learn, often, far into the night. My father raised his children to fi nd delight from Torah study, and he took immense pleasure when we in turn, studied from his sepharim. I have many memories preparing for shiurim using an early edition of a Gemara or Chumash. Their pages, full of the history of those who had previously owned them, brought a warm glow to my studies. The study of Torah was an ever-present love of my father’s - and his own children in turn, have followed his legacy. They are all well educated and steadfast in their religious beliefs. Therefore, it is with mixed emotions, that my siblings and I have decided to sell this collection. It is our hope, that those who purchase these sepharim, will continue to use them for the study of Torah. We are sure this will be a merit for our father’s Neshama and the Neshamos of previous owners of these sepharim from generations past. A loving son. Lot 309 FINE JUDAICA: — PRINTED BOOKS — 1 AARON HALEVI OF BARCELONA. (Attributed to). Sepher ha-Chinuch [“Book of Education”: Exposition on the 613 precepts]. FIRST EDITION. On title, inscription of former owner, Abraham Segre ben Nathanel. Replete with rabbinic marginalia in Segre’s hand; many of these cross-references to Maimonides’ Code. On title and fi nal page, censor’s signatures. ff. (179). Title taped, some waterstains. Modern morocco marbled boards. 4to. [Vinograd, Venice 78; Habermann, Bomberg 82; Adams A-1]. Venice, Daniel Bomberg: 1523. $2000-3000 ❧ In his introduction, the author writes that he intends the work to arouse the heart of his young son and his youthful companions to study every week the commandments contained in that week’s portion of the Torah. Today, Sepher ha-Chinuch is regarded as one of the mainstays of rabbinic scholarship, being the subject of numerous commentaries, of which the most stellar is no doubt the “Minchath Chinuch” by the nineteenth- century rabbi of Tarnopol, Galicia, R. Joseph Babad. Lately, Machon Yerushalayim issued a three-volume set complete with notes by the late sage of B’nei Berak, R. El’azar Menachem Man Shach. The identity of the author of Sepher ha-Chinuch remains a mystery. He refers to himself in the introduc- tion as “a Jew of the house of Levi of Barcelona.” What is certain, is that the book was composed at the end of the thirteenth century. For a brief discussion of recent scholarly consensus, see EJ, Vol. VII, cols. 1126-27 The Segres of northern Italy were a distinguished rabbinic family. It is thought that the name is of Spanish origin. Chroniclers note two Nathanel Segres: The fi rst, Nathanel ben Judah, a scholar of Lodi, died in 1535. The second, Nathanel ben Aaron Jacob was born in Chieri, Savoy, and died in Cento in 1691. He authored a collection of responsa entitled “Ezer Ya’akov,” which he dedicated to his friend Abraham Rovigo of Modena, and which is still extant in manuscript. It remains to be determined which Nathanel is the father of our own Abraham Segre, composer of the glosses of the present volume. See JE, Vol. XI, p. 157; EJ, Vol. XIV, col. 1112. Lot 1 1 2 ABOAB, SAMUEL. Sepher ha-Zichronoth. * Bound 5 ABRABANEL, DON ISAAC. Peirush al ha-Torah with: Nachmias, Raphael ibn, ed. Sepher Mekor Ma’ayan [Commentary to the Pentateuch]. FIRST EDITION. Edited ha-Chochmah [Midrash concerning Moses’ Sinaitic by Samuel d’Archivolti. Printer’s device on title (Yaari, ascent to heaven and his exchanges with the angels]. ff. Printer’s Marks no. 18). On title, inscription of former (2). Title within wreathed arch. ff. (4), 86. Browned and owner, “Yedidyah Camerino.” On fi nal page, censor’s sig- wormed. Modern boards. Sm. 4to. [Vinograd, Prague 367]. nature, “Revisto p[er] me Antonio Fran[cesco] Enriques d’ord[in]e dell…monas. Arciu’ d’Urbino 1687.” See Wm. (Prague), (1650). $300-400 Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books, pl. IV, no. 3. ❧ A work of practical halacha (halacha le- ff. 425 (i.e. 424), (1). Ex-library. Some light stains, otherwise ma’aseh) that reflects the vicissitudes of a fi ne copy. Modern tinted calf. Folio. [Vinograd, Venice 641; Italian Jewish Life.There is some question as Habermann, di Gara 53; Mehlman 626; Adams A-54]. to the authorship of the book. It is attributed alternatively to Samuel ben Abraham Aboab Venice, Asher Parenzo for Giovanni di Gara: 1579. (1610-1694), rabbi of Venice, or to Isaac ben $1000-1500 Abraham Hayim Jesurun of Hamburg (d. 1655). 6 ABRABANEL, DON ISAAC. Miphaloth Elo-him [“The Deeds of God” on the question of creation ex nihilo, 3 ABRABANEL, DON ISAAC. Nachlath Avoth [commen- miracles and prophecy]. FIRST EDITION. ff. 96, Stamp on tary to Ethics of the Fathers, with text]. Second Edition. title. Modern boards. 8vo. [Vinograd, Venice 771; Habermann, di Printer’s device on title (Yaari no. 16). Laudatory Gara 137; Adams A-52]. poem by the Author’s eldest son, Judah (Leone Ebreo) Venice, Giovanni di Gara: 1592. $400-600 Abrabanel on verso of title. ff. 216 (i.e. 215). Few light ❧ In this treatise, Don Isaac Abrabanel stains, owner’s stamp on bottom of title. Contemporary blind- (1437-1508), former fi nance minister to King tooled calf, rebacked. 4to. [Vinograd, Venice 248; Habermann, Ferdinand and Queen Isabel of Spain, Bible Adelkind 18; not in Adams]. exegete and philosopher, takes up the cudgels with Aristotle’s theory of the eternity of the Venice, Justininan-Adelkind: 1545. $1000-1500 world, mustering logical proofs to demonstrate ❧ In his commentary, Don Isaac struggled to that the world was created in actual time. come to terms with the catastrophic suffering Spanish Jewry had endured. Nachlath Avoth is his testimony to the signifi cance of that suffer- ing. For a detailed biography of Abrabarnel’s experiences and philosophical conclusions regarding the Spanish Expulsion, see B. Netanyahu, Don Isaac Abravanel: Statesman & Philosopher (1968). [SEE ILLUSTRATION RIGHT] 4 ABRABANEL, DON ISAAC. Mirkeveth Ha-Mishnah [commentary to Sepher Devarim]. FIRST EDITION. With many inscriptions, signatures and stamps of previous owners on the recto and verso of the title, including stamps of the Library of Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin; R. Meir Shapiro (when Rabbi of Piotrkow); earlier 18th- and 19th-century inscriptions indicating the volume was purchased from the estate of R.