Auction 1 - Rare Hebrew Books, Manuscripts & Rabbinic Letters
Lot 12:
Description
Few printers altered the course of Jewish learning as profoundly as Daniel Bomberg. During the first half of the sixteenth century his Venetian press established the typography, foliation, and page architecture of the Babylonian Talmud that have remained the standard to the present day. Issued in the final years of Bomberg’s celebrated Hebrew press, the present tractate belongs to the last generation of editions produced by the printer whose work became the archetype for virtually every subsequent printed Shas.
Although devoted principally to the Temple meal-offerings, Menaḥot occupies a distinctive place within Seder Kodashim. It preserves the Talmud’s foundational discussions of tefillin, mezuzah, tzitzit, Torah scrolls, and the construction of the Temple menorah, subjects that ensured the tractate remained central to practical halakhic study long after the destruction of the Temple. Printed during the period of intense competition between the Bomberg and Giustiniani presses, this edition reflects the final flowering of Hebrew printing in Renaissance Venice before the upheavals that would soon overtake the publication of the Talmud.
This is the third Bomberg edition, explicitly designated on the title page “נדפס שלישית,” and complete with the Piskei Tosafot, the concise digest of Tosafist rulings appended to the tractate and frequently absent from surviving early copies. Notably, this third edition is the one R. Yoel Sirkes had utilized for his annotations (Hagahot HaBach).
Bound in an elegant modern full vellum binding with brown goatskin spine, gilt-lettered. 112 leaves; title page with professionally reinforced ornamental border; several leaves with expert, virtually imperceptible reinforcement to the lower margins. An attractive, well-preserved copy, handsomely bound and beautifully presenting. No worming or staining, an unusually fine specimen.
Reference: Oz VeHadar, intro. To Seder Kodashim 7.
Provenance: The distinguished library of Mr. Marvin Shick, a prominent scholar, communal figure, and discerning collector whose library reflected a lifetime of dedication to classical Jewish learning and heritage.
Opening Price: $25,000
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