Auction 1 - Rare Hebrew Books, Manuscripts & Rabbinic Letters
Lot 24:
Description
The second printing of Masechet Moed Katan from the press that gave the printed Talmud its enduring form, issued only five years after Bomberg’s first edition of the tractate. This second cycle of the Bomberg Talmud began at a particularly precarious moment for the press. In 1525, with Bomberg’s Venetian printing privilege expiring, the Senate repeatedly refused to renew it. Religious objections played a role: contemporary records complain of Hebrew books printed by Bomberg containing material contrary to the Christian faith. After repeated attempts, Bomberg finally secured a new ten-year privilege at the extraordinary price of 500 ducats, allowing his Hebrew press to continue. The present Moed Katan appeared the following year, among the tractates produced as Bomberg embarked upon his second great cycle of the Talmud.
The title page offers a small and rather remarkable counterpoint to that controversy. Bomberg, a Christian printer who had just fought Venetian opposition to continue producing Hebrew books, is identified here as דניאל יצ״ו בן כמ״ר קורניליו בומבירגי ז״ל. Daniel himself receives the thoroughly Jewish blessing יצ״ו, while his deceased Christian father Cornelio is accorded the familiar ז״ל. The formulation is all the more striking against contemporary rabbinic unease over Christians printing sacred Hebrew books, voiced only a few years earlier by R. Eliyahu HaLevi. Within a remarkably short span, Bomberg had gone from being part of a contested phenomenon to occupying an almost domesticated place within the language of the Hebrew book itself.
This 1526 printing was newly set following the first Moed Katan of 1521. Both comprise 45 folios, though the registro found at the conclusion of the first printing is absent here. The volume thus belongs to the remarkably brief early period in which Bomberg’s Talmud could circulate largely untouched by the censorship that would transform Italian editions after the burnings and prohibitions of the following decades.
Complete, 45 folios. Some staining and very minor wormholes throughout. Fol. 15, misnumbered as 16, repaired along the lower border and inner margin. Scattered brief pencil annotations in a modern Hebrew block hand. Final folio (45) with corner and inner margin neatly repaired.
References: Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy 72-73; Cioni, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 11 (1969) 382-387; Benayahu, Authorization (Heb.) 213ff.
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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