Bidspirit auction | (FABLES). Berachiah ben Natronai HaNakdan

(FABLES). Berachiah ben Natronai HaNakdan (Benedictus le Puncteur). Mishlei Shu’alim [“Fox Fables” a Hebrew version of Aesop’s Fables] FIRST EDITION. Title within architectural arch. With rare final leaf containing printer’s mark. ff. 87 (1). Lightly browned and stained in places, previous owner’s marks on title. Fine Modernist morocco binding featuring interlocking geometric forms, gilt dentelles. 12mo. Vinograd, Mantua 44; Mehlman 1261. Mantua: Joseph ben Jacob of Padua 1557 Collection of fables synthesizing the European Aesopian tradition with animals who converse in a Biblical Hebrew, comfortably interspersing their conversations with Talmudic aphorisms. Final three pages contain a description of the game of chess written in an elegant rhymed prose by Bonsenior ibn Yachya. For a brief discussion of the author and summary of the text, see M. Steinschneider, Schach bei den Juden (1873) pp. 86-7; and V. Keats, Chess, Jews and History (1995) pp. 182-85. Collection of fables synthesizing the European Aesopian tradition with animals who converse in a Biblical Hebrew, comfortably interspersing their conversations with Talmudic aphorisms. Final three pages contain a description of the game of chess written in an elegant rhymed prose by Bonsenior ibn Yachya. For a brief discussion of the author and summary of the text, see M. Steinschneider, Schach bei den Juden (1873) pp. 86-7; and V. Keats, Chess, Jews and History (1995) pp. 182-85.