Auction 100 – Important Hebrew Manuscripts and Books from the Victor (Avigdor) Klagsbald Collection
Maaseh Toviah – Venice, 1707 – Portrait of the Author Rabbi Toviah the Physician and Many Illustrations – First Edition
Opening: $2,000
Estimate: $3,000 - $4,000
Sold for: $8,125
Including buyer's premium
Maaseh Toviah, astronomy and science, medicine and anatomy, by R. Toviah Katz HaRofe (Tobias Cohn, physician). Venice: Bragadin, 1707. First edition.
The title page is dated 1707, while the approbations are dated 1708.
Numerous illustrations and diagrams, including an engraved portrait of the author at age 48 on verso of title page.
A detailed illustration of the human body including the internal organs, paralleling it to a multi-story building, is featured on p. 106a.
The book comprises three parts, with divisional title pages. Approbation by R. David Oppenheim and Venetian rabbis. Poems in praise of the author and book.
On leaves 27-29, Zikaron Livnei Yisrael, a report on the examination of Nathan of Gaza by the rabbis of Venice (first printed on a single leaf in Venice, 1668).
On last page, license of censor in Padua (in Italian), dated 1708.
[6], 158 leaves. 21.5 cm. Good condition. Stains. Small tear to title page and small marginal tears to several other leaves. Close trimming, affecting headers of leaves in several places. Stamps. Old binding, with leather spine. Wear and damage to binding.
Early Printed Books – Italy
Early Printed Books – Italy