Auction 92 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Rosh Hashanah – with Rashi and Tosafot, Piskei Tosafot, the Rambam's commentary on Mishnayot, and Rabbenu Asher. Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1521. First edition.
Volume from the first Talmud edition printed by Daniel Bomberg in Venice. This famous edition (The Venice Talmud), the first to comprise the entire Babylonian Talmud, served as prototype for all future Talmud editions. It established the text of the Talmud, the page layout and foliation used until this day.
"Registro" table on final page, listing the gatherings and opening text of each sheet (to facilitate bookbinding).
Inscription on title page and marginal glosses in several places.
42 leaves. 36.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, including dark stains and minor dampstains. Open tears, including large marginal open tears to final leaves, close to text, repaired with paper. Worming to title page and other leaves, slightly affecting text, mostly repaired with paper. New leather binding.
Habermann, The Printer Daniel Bomberg, no. 32.
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Chullin – with Rashi and Tosafot, Piskei Tosafot, the Rambam's commentary on Mishnayot, and Rabbenu Asher. Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1521. First edition.
Volume from the first Talmud edition printed by Daniel Bomberg in Venice. This famous edition (The Venice Talmud), the first to comprise the entire Babylonian Talmud, served as prototype for all future Talmud editions. It established the text of the Talmud, the page layout and foliation used until this day.
"Registro" table on final page, listing the gatherings and opening text of each sheet (to facilitate bookbinding).
Marginalia to several leaves.
2-174, 177-179, [1] leaves. Lacking title page (replaced in photocopy). Approx. 34 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains. Large, dark stains to some leaves. Tears, including large open tears to first and final leaves and to several other leaves, affecting text, repaired with paper (with photocopy text replacement in several places). Worming affecting text, mostly repaired with paper. New binding.
Habermann, The Printer Daniel Bomberg, no. 44b.
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat – with Rashi and Tosafot, Piskei Tosafot, Rambam's commentary on Mishnayot, and Rabbenu Asher. [Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1530]. Second edition.
Volume from the second Talmud edition printed by Daniel Bomberg in Venice.
On p. 157b, text of the Hadran recited upon the completion of a tractate. Concludes with the regular kaddish, rather than the special kaddish usually recited nowadays at a siyum.
Many handwritten references and markings in the margins and body of text. After the kaddish at end of tractate, note in early Ashkenazic script with text to be recited at a siyum (from Shimush Tehillim).
Incomplete copy. 3-8, 10-191 leaves. Lacking 4 leaves: title page, leaves 2, 9, and final leaf (replaced in photocopy). 35.5 cm. Fair condition. Many stains, including dampstains and dark stains. Wear. Tears, including tears affecting text, repaired with paper. Large marginal open tears to several leaves, slightly affecting text, repaired with paper (with handwritten text replacement on one leaf). Worming, affecting text. Many stamps (over text in several places). New leather binding.
Habermann, The Printer Daniel Bomberg, no. 19.
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Mo'ed Katan – with Rashi and Tosafot, Piskei Tosafot, the Rambam's commentary on Mishnayot, and Rabbenu Asher. Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1539. Title page states: "Printed for the second time", though this is in fact the third edition of Mo'ed Katan printed by Bomberg.
Inscriptions on title page and other leaves.
45 leaves. 34.5 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains, including dampstains and mold stains to several leaves. Marginal open tears to title page and other leaves, and large open tears to final leaves, affecting text, repaired with paper (with photocopy replacement in several places). Worming affecting text, repaired with paper. New leather binding.
Habermann, The Printer Daniel Bomberg, no. 159.
Novellae on Tractate Chullin by the Rashba (R. Shlomo ibn Aderet). Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1523. First edition.
Printed concurrently to three other books: Chiddushei Gittin and Chiddushei Berachot by the Rashba, and Chiddushei Bava Batra by the Ramban.
Ownership inscription on the title page, in Italian script: "This book is mine, Shemaya Baruch…". Another inscription above it: "…I, Meir Baruch". The first signatory is presumably R. Shemaya Baruch, brother of R. Yehoshua Boaz author of Shiltei HaGiborim. R. Shemaya Baruch was a prominent banker in Cherasco (Piedmont region). The second signatory is presumably his son Meir, who is mentioned in his testament (see: R. Avraham Yosef Chavatzelet, The Book Shiltei HaGiborim – Who Authored It? Moriah, year 18, issue 7-8, Tammuz 1992, p. 99; Boksenboim, Letters of Jewish Teachers [Hebrew], p. 346).
Signature in Sephardic script: "Purchased from R. David Guez, I, Refael Burgel" [R. David Guez was a Torah scholar in Tunis in the late 18th century]; "Eliezer Valobra" (signature deleted and damaged).
133, [1] leaves. 26 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, including minor dampstains. Worming, affecting text (some leaves with extensive worming to inner margins), repaired in part with paper. New leather binding.
Habermann, The Printer Daniel Bomberg, no. 79.
Chiddushei Aggadot on the Talmud, by R. Shmuel Eliezer HaLevi Eidels – the Maharsha, two parts: Lublin: Tzvi son of Avraham Kalonymus Yoffe, [1627]; [Kraków: Menachem Nachum Meisels, 1631]. Two parts in two volumes. First, rare editions.
First editions of Chiddushei Aggadot by the Maharsha, printed in his lifetime (the printing of the second volume was completed a few months after his passing).
The first part was printed in Lublin and comprises the following tractates: Yevamot, Ketubot, Gittin, Kiddushin, Nedarim, Nazir, Sotah, Berachot, Shabbat, Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, Bava Batra, Sanhedrin, Makkot, Shevuot, Horayot, Zevachim and Menachot. Part II was printed in Kraków and comprises: Eruvin, Pesachim, Yoma, Sukkah, Beitzah, Rosh Hashana, Taanit, Megillah, Chagigah, Moed Katan.
Before publishing Chiddushei Aggadot, the Maharsha published his work Chiddushei Halachot (Lublin, 1612). In his preface to Chiddushei Halachot, the Maharsha expresses his regret at not publishing Halachah and Aggadah as one intertwined work, as it is in the Talmud. He asks Torah scholars to study both works together. Per the Maharsha's wishes, the Metz printers decided to combine both works in their Talmud edition, using smaller type to differentiate Chiddushei Aggadot from Chiddushei Halachot. Since then, the Maharsha's commentaries were printed in all known Talmud editions following that format.
Two volumes (copies lacking several leaves). Vol. I: [1], 28; 7; 20; 69, 79-125; 44 leaves. Lacking 9 leaves: 70-78. Vol. II: 1, 3-5, 5-88 leaves. Lacking 4 leaves: first [2] leaves, and leaves 89-90 (all four leaves replaced in photocopy). Approx. 28-29 cm. Most leaves of vol. I in good-fair condition, vol. II in fair condition. Stains, including dampstains and traces of past dampness. Large, dark stains to several leaves of vol. II. Worming, affecting text. Tears, including open tears affecting text, repaired with paper. Extensive worming and open tears to title page of vol. I, affecting border and text (on both sides of leaf), repaired with paper (with photocopy and handwritten replacement of border and text). Margins of one leaf of vol. I trimmed. Inscriptions. New bindings.
Babylonian Talmud – complete set. Munich-Heidelberg, 1948. "Published by the Union of Rabbis in the American Occupation Zone in Germany".
After WWII, the demand for Talmud and holy books by surviving Jews congregated in the DP camps exceeded the few available copies. From 1946, the Union of Rabbis in Germany, with the assistance of the American army and the JDC, began to print volumes of Talmud for survivors. At first, only a few tractates were printed in various formats. In 1948, the present edition – a complete edition of the Talmud – was printed for the first time. Each volume contains two title pages. The first title page was especially designed to commemorate the printing of the Talmud on the scorched soil of Germany; on its upper part is an illustration of a Jewish town with the caption "From slavery to redemption and from darkness to great light"; on its lower part is an illustration of barbed wire fences and a labor camp, with the captions: "Labor camp in Germany during Nazi era", "They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not thy precepts" (Psalms 119).
19 volumes. Lacking title page of Tractate Megillah. 40 cm. Most volumes printed on dry paper. Overall good condition. Stains. Tears, including tears to some title pages. Marginal open tears to title pages of Tractate Shabbat (strips of paper on verso of first title page, around margins; second title page mounted on paper for reinforcement). Creases to some title pages. New leather bindings (uniform).