Auction 61 - Rare and Important Items
Minchat Chinuch - First Edition, Printed Anonymously - Lviv, 1869 - Fine Copy with Original Binding
Opening: $2,000
Sold for: $3,750
Including buyer's premium
Sefer Minchat Chinuch, "Comprehensive commentary to Sefer HaChinuch, with wonderful depth and proficiency…". Parts I-III. Lviv: R. Uri Zev Wolf Salat, [1869].
The first edition of Minchat Chinuch, which was published anonymously during the lifetime of author, R. Yosef Babad, rabbi of Ternopil. The title page states: "Written by one of the holy Torah geniuses of our times, who omitted his name due to his great humility… published through the efforts of R. Reuven Cohen Rappaport". Only in the second edition (Lviv, 1889), 15 years after the author's death, was his identity revealed by the publisher. Minchat Chinuch eventually became one of the classics of deep Torah study, in Galicia and Poland, Lithuania and Hungary, and indeed in all places of Jewish settlement until today. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of copies have been printed in dozens of editions, as well as dozens of books that expound on its contents.
Page 37a contains a learned annotation in Ashkenazic handwriting, signed: "Y.Z.C.H.".
All three parts in one volume: [2], 116 leaves; [1], 148 leaves; [2], 105, 4, [3] leaves. Approx. 36.5 cm. Paper quality varies, some high-quality and some brittle. Good condition. Stains. Some leaves are dark. Original leather binding, with gilt embellishments; damages.
The first edition of Minchat Chinuch, which was published anonymously during the lifetime of author, R. Yosef Babad, rabbi of Ternopil. The title page states: "Written by one of the holy Torah geniuses of our times, who omitted his name due to his great humility… published through the efforts of R. Reuven Cohen Rappaport". Only in the second edition (Lviv, 1889), 15 years after the author's death, was his identity revealed by the publisher. Minchat Chinuch eventually became one of the classics of deep Torah study, in Galicia and Poland, Lithuania and Hungary, and indeed in all places of Jewish settlement until today. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of copies have been printed in dozens of editions, as well as dozens of books that expound on its contents.
Page 37a contains a learned annotation in Ashkenazic handwriting, signed: "Y.Z.C.H.".
All three parts in one volume: [2], 116 leaves; [1], 148 leaves; [2], 105, 4, [3] leaves. Approx. 36.5 cm. Paper quality varies, some high-quality and some brittle. Good condition. Stains. Some leaves are dark. Original leather binding, with gilt embellishments; damages.