Auction 1 - Rare Hebrew Books, Manuscripts & Rabbinic Letters
Lot 46:
Description
The responsa of R. Yisrael Isserlein (Maharai, c. 1390–1460), one of the central halakhic authorities of late medieval Ashkenaz. Terumat ha-Deshen became a foundational source for later halakhic decision-making and is cited repeatedly by both R. Yosef Karo and the Rema. Its title itself encodes the structure of the work: 354 responsa, corresponding to the numerical value of דשן.
This Venetian edition belongs to the Giustiniani-Adelkind world of mid-sixteenth-century Hebrew printing, a generation after Bomberg and in the shadow of the famous Venetian Hebrew-printing rivalries. This copy also carries later Jerusalem institutional provenance through the blue stamp of בית המדרש שערי ציון בחורבות ר׳ יהודה החסיד.
Copy: Complete. Title page unnumbered but counted as f. 1; text begins with f. 2 and continues to f. 190a. Opening gathering and margins professionally reinforced with archival paper; small marginal loss on ff. 153–155, not affecting text; folded lower margin on f. 163. Blue stamps of Beit Midrash Sha’arei Zion in the ruins of R. Yehudah He-Hasid, Jerusalem, on several leaves. Modern half leather over marbled boards. Final leaves with old marginal wear and repairs, text unaffected.
References: Vinograd Venice 306, Habermann Adelkind 31
Provenance: The collection of Abraham Lieberman, Flatbush, Brooklyn NY
Opening price: $1000
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