F i n e Ju d a i C a . pr i n t e d bo o K s , ma n u s C r i p t s , au t o g r a p h Le t t e r s , gr a p h i C & Ce r e m o n i a L ar t K e s t e n b a u m & Co m p a n y We d n e s d a y , ma r C h 21s t , 2012 K e s t e n b a u m & Co m p a n y . Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art A Lot 275 Catalogue of F i n e Ju d a i C a . PRINTED BOOKS , MANUSCRI P TS , AUTOGRA P H LETTERS , GRA P HIC & CERE M ONIA L ART Featuring: Property from the Library of a New England Scholar ——— To be Offered for Sale by Auction, Wednesday, 21st March, 2012 at 3:00 pm precisely ——— Viewing Beforehand: Sunday, 18th March - 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm Monday, 19th March - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Tuesday, 20th March - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm No Viewing on the Day of Sale This Sale may be referred to as: “Maymyo” Sale Number Fifty Four Illustrated Catalogues: $38 (US) * $45 (Overseas) KestenbauM & CoMpAny Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art . 242 West 30th street, 12th 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 e s t e n b a u m & Co m p a n y . Chairman: Daniel E. Kestenbaum Operations Manager: Jackie S. Insel Client Accounts: S. Rivka Morris Client Relations: Sandra E. Rapoport, Esq. (Consultant) Printed Books & Manuscripts: Rabbi Eliezer Katzman Michael Terry (Consultant) Ceremonial & Graphic Art: Abigail H. Meyer Fine & Rare Vintage Wines: Daniel E. Kestenbaum Catalogue Art Director and 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 - 239 Illustrated Books: Lots 240 - 246 Manuscripts & Autograph Letters: Lots 247 - 294 Graphic Art: Lots 295 - 326 Photography: Lots 310 - 314 Ceremonial Art: Lots 327 - End of Sale Front Cover Illustration (composite): Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Three-page Autograph Letter Signed, 15th Teveth, 1925. Written to the Rogatchover Gaon. The earliest surviving letter written by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. (See Lot 284). Back Cover Illustration: Talmud Tractate “Eruvin.” Two large manuscript vellum leaves. Germany, 12/13th century. (See Lot 291). List of prices realized will be posted on our Web site, www.kestenbaum.net, following the sale. — P RINTED BOOKS — 1 ABRABANEL, JUDAH (“Leone Ebreo”). Dialoghi di Amore 2 ABRAHAM BEN ASHER. Ohr Hasechel [commentary to Midrash (“Conversations on Love”). Printer’s device on opening and Rabbah on the Book of Genesis, with text]. With commentary of closing leaves. Italian marginalia on ff. 103-104. Bookplate of Wm. Rashi. FIRST EDITION. Elaborate printer’s device on title (Yaari no. Wynne, Esq. of the Inner Temple, and his signature of 1730. ff. (2), 30). ff. 192. Previous owners’ marks, stained, slight worming in places, 1-134, 155-261 (mispaginated by printer, but complete). Title remargined. lower corner of f. 182 repaired affecting some text, final leaf mounted. ff. 251-60 slightly torn at top. Contemporary vellum. 8vo. Adams A-61. Modern calf. Folio. Vinograd, Venice 537; Mehlman 170. Venice, Casa de’ figliuoli di Aldo (Aldus Manutius), 1545. $800-1000 Venice , Giovanni Griffio, 1567-8. $700-900 ❧ Judah Abrabanel (c. 1460-after 1532), physician, poet 3 ADARBI, ISAAC BEN SAMUEL. Divrei Rivoth [responsa]. FIRST and Renaissance philosopher, was the eldest son of Don EDITION. A WIDE-MARGINED COPY. ff. 227. Expert paper repairs in places, Isaac Abrabanel. Commonly known as Leone Ebreo, his previous owners’ marks. Modern calf. Folio. Vinograd, Salonika 107; reputation rests upon the Dialoghi, among the most popular Mehlman Genuzoth no. 33; not in Adams. philosophical works of the age. Exiled from Spain, Judah Abrabanel settled in Italy and became one of the major Salonika, David ben Abraham Azubib, 1582. $3000-5000 standard-bearers of the Italian Renaissance. His central ❧ Important collection of 430 responsa. thesis in the Dialoghi is that love is the foundation of the The author (1510-1584?), Rabbi of the Lisbon Jewish world. Judah Abrabanel spurned the rationalism of the congregation in Salonika, was a disciple of R. Joseph Taitatzak Aristotelian-Maimonidean system and was more attracted to and a colleague of R. Samuel de Medina, author Shailoth the mystical world of ideas of the medieval Kabbalah, with its UTeshuvoth MaHaRaSHDa”M. Adarbi many times takes strong inclination toward neo-Platonism. See I. Zinberg, A exception to the latter’s rulings. See EJ, Vol. II col. 254. History of Jewish Literature, Vol. IV, pp. 15-20; C. Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance (1959) pp. 128-36. [see illustration lower right] Aldus Manutius, patriach of a dynasty of humanist-printers, revolutionized printing methods. He moved from the Monastic tradition of the folio format of the book, and was the first to produce books in a pocket-size (8vo), intended for personal usage. His books are particularly prized by bibliophiles. [see illustration lower Left] Lot 1 Lot 3 1 4 AKRA, ABRAHAM. (Ed.) Mehararei Nemeirim. FIRST EDITION. ff. 18, 6, 17-56. Lacking final ff. 6 of indices (as in most all copies). Trimmed with few stains, title laid down. Moden calf. 8vo. Vinograd, Venice 877. Venice, Daniel Zanetti, 1599. $700-900 ❧ A collection of invaluable “Kelalei HaGemara” or principles of Talmudic methodology. These essays were penned by R. Emanuel Sephardi and by the distinguished Egyptian halachist R. David ibn Zimra. Specialized studies on the hermeneutic principle of “kal vechomer” (a fortiori) were drawn from the writings of R. Samuel Al-Valensi and R. ibn Musa. In his introduction, the printer bemoans his inability to provide page numbers for Talmudic citations, due to the scarcity of copies of the Talmud in Italy following its confiscation and destruction by the Church. 5 AL’HARIZI, JUDAH. Tachkemoni. Second edition. Few marginal notes. ff. 76, (2). Expert paper repairs, few stains. Modern elegantly tooled calf. 4to. Vinograd, Const. 270; Yaari, Const. 196; Mehlman 1273. Constantinople, Solomon and Joseph Yaabetz, 1578. $3000-4000 ❧ Spanish born Judah ben Solomon Al’Harizi (1170-1235) was a preeminent poet and translator from Arabic into Hebrew, especially the works by Maimonides. Sepher Tachkemoni is Al’Harizi’s major work of poetry, completed in 1220, during the course of the poet’s extensive travels through the Near East. He includes here a travelogue from Spain through Provence to Egypt, Syria, and Babylonia - complimenting the travels of Benjamin of Tudela fifty years earlier. He writes of personalities encountered in the various cities along the way: Rabbis Meir Halevi Lot 5 (RaMaH) Abulafia of Toledo; Sheshet of Barcelona, Kalonymus ha-Nasi of Beaucaire, Abraham Maimonides of Cairo and the princes of Narbonne. See Judith Dishon, “Medieval Panorama in the Book of Tahkemoni,” PAAJR, Vol. LVI (1990), pp. 11-27. [see illustration upper left] 6 ALASHKAR, MOSES BEN ISAAC. Hassagoth [“Critique”: Polemic / philosophy]. FIRST EDITION. Printer’s device on title (Yaari no. 22). ff. 16. Stamp of previous owner on title, some stains, several leaves expertly repaired with some text supplied in facsimile. Recent wrappers. Sm. 4to. Vinograd, Ferrara 46; Adams M-1866. Ferrara, Abraham ibn Usque, 1557. $1000-1500 ❧ The kabbalist ibn Shem Tov had written in Sepher Ha’emunoth a scathing critique of Maimonides’ rationalist philosophy. In the Hassagoth, R. Moses Alaskhar rises to Maimonides’ defense, accusing ibn Shem Tov of deliberately misquoting Maimonides. 7 (ALEPPO). Chaim ben Betzalel. Igereth HaTiyul [short commentaries: Peshat, Remez, Drash and Sod]. ff. 32. Some staining, marginal repair on title, taped repair on f. 4, not affecting text. Later wrappers. 12mo. Ya’ari, Aleppo 7; and see D. Sutton, Aleppo: City of Scholars no. 191. Aleppo, Eliahu Hai Sasson, 1872. $300-500 ❧ A fascinating conflation of Jewish cultural backgrounds: A work composed first in Prague in 1605 by the brother of the Maharal, here reprinted more than two centuries later in the ancient city of Aleppo, Syria, in which the editor, Moshe Mordehai Dayan, includes an endorsement for the work penned by the Chassidic Rebbe Abraham Joshua Heschel of Apt, noting that all the author’s words “are pearls… imbued with a holy spirit”. [see illustration lower left] Lot 7 2 8 (ALEPPO). Menashe Sutton. Pirchei Shoshanim [guide to spiritual development through stories and poetry]. FIRST EDITION. Published by the Author’s grandson. ff. (3), 2-41. Modern boards. 8vo. Yaari Aleppo 34; Friedberg “Pei” 700. Aleppo, E. C. Damesek, 1910. $300-500 ❧ Bound with Darkah Shel Torah. Jerusalem, 1926 - against modern methods of teaching the Bible. See D. Sutton, Aleppo: City of Scholars, no. 551. 9 (ALEPPO). Samuel, Laniado. Shulchan HaMelech. FIRST EDITION. ff. (8), 154. Lightly browned. Contemporary boards, worn. 8vo. Yaari, Aleppo 53. Aleppo, Y. Dayan , 1923. $300-500 ❧ Collection of Halachoth applicable to modern day. See D. Sutton, Aleppo: City of Scholars, nos. 373 and 395. 10 (ALEPPO). Tehillim im Sepher Keneh HaMidah. FIRST EDITION of the commentary. This copy with printed presenation label affixed to front paste-down with handwritten inscription from the author. ff. 3, 198. Original boards, rubbed. 12mo. Unknown to D. Sutton. Aleppo), Y. Dayan, 1926. $400-600 ❧ The Book of Psalms alongside a commentary by Rabbi Moshe David Dwek. The author states in the introduction that he wrote this work while illness confined him to bed and thus he had no access for the study of other books and only the text of the Tehillim was available to him.