Auction of Judaica focusing on printed books and handwritten documents and other manuscripts. Divided into categories as follows:
Religious Hebrew books take up the first third of the auction. Highlights are: The first edition of two parts of the Shulchan Aruch (Venice, 1565, Lots 37 and 38) a large fragment of the Tanach Constantinople, 1522 (lot 5); and several Zhitomir / Slavita imprints.
Also appearing are Rabbinic manuscripts and letters from such luminaries as Yehuda Aszod (lot 57); Avraham Azulai (lot 73); Reuven ibn Yahya (lot 78); Moshe Provencal (lot 87); Ya’akov Toledano (lot 90), etc.
The personal silver Kiddush cup of the Ribnitzer Rebbe (lot 56) will of course attract much attention.
The sale highlight is lot 94: An exceptional illuminated manuscript that has never before appeared at public auction. A Passover Hagadah created by the celebrated artistic-scribe Eliezer Sussman Mezeritsch, Frankfurt, 1833.
The next section (lots 108-178) represents Judaica stemming from across the globe, including Australia, Brazil, China, the German-speaking lands, Gibraltar, Poland, Russia, etc. Also included is much on Holy Land travel, the Land of Israel and Zionism.
The section of Antisemitica / Holocaust includes an exceptional illuminated manuscript (lot 208) devoted to the Polish Jews of Częstochowa. Also of importance is a recently uncovered diary from 1945 of a young Hungarian Jewess who survived Auschwitz (lot 205); and a large archive of personal documents of a German-Jewish doctor who spent the years 1939-47 in Shanghai.
General Judaica (lots 209-245) includes the first edition of Bartolocci’s first ever bibliography of Hebrew books (Rome, 1675, lot 209); a unique copy of the Edgardo Mortara’s autobiography, personally signed by him (lot 226); and the first edition of one of the rarest works of Spanish-Jewish literature, Moses Almosnino’s Extremos y Grandezas de Constantinopla (Madrid, 1638, lot 231).
The penultimate section of the sale (lot 241-267) are illustrated books and graphic art including several fine books from the magnificent hand of Arthur Szyk, including two original drawings by him (lots 258, 259).
The final section of the sale are fine books that stem from the library of the late Charles Wuorinen, being English & Continental Early Printed Books (lots 268-291).
Utilize the Search-bar to locate books of any specificity.
For any and all inquiries relating to bidding please contact Shaya Kestenbaum: jack@kestenbaum.net.
LOT 224:
(MORTARA, EDGARDO). La Civiltà Cattolica. (Series III ...
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Sold for: $400
Start price:
$
400
Estimated price :
$500 - $700
Buyer's Premium: 25%
sales tax: 8.875%
On the full lot's price and commission
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(MORTARA, EDGARDO).
La Civiltà Cattolica. (Series III, vol. XII). pp. 768.
With article: Il Piccolo Neofito Edgardo Mortara (pp. 385-416).
Lightly foxed. Contemporary limp patterned boards. 4to.
Rome, 1858.
Including the most influential pro-Church article on Mortara.
The most influential pro-Church article on the Mortara case was an account published in this Jesuit periodical and subsequently reprinted or quoted in Catholic newspapers across Europe.
According to the account presented here, Edgardo begged the rector of the Catechumens not to send him back to his Jewish family, but to let him grow up in a Christian home.
Initiated was the central plank of the pro-Church narrative, that Edgardo had a new family, namely the Catholic Church itself. The article quotes Edgardo as claiming nothing less than:
"I am baptised and my father is the Pope."
Several other articles relating to Mortara also appear in this volume (details supplied on request).
See Archiginnasio Library exhibition, “Il ratto del fanciullo”
http://bimu.comune.bologna.it/biblioweb/mostra-caso-mortara/