Post-Auction Report: Sale 94, June 17, 2021
Kestenbaum & Company was privileged to again offer an auction comprising of premier Hebrew printed books. As it comprised of an especially remarkable single-owner collection of Hebrew printed books, this sale garnered high levels of interest and activity from hundreds of participants and spectators.
Interest was spread across all categories of the literary categories on offer.
In Biblical works, the beloved First Edition commentary to the Pentateuch, Kli Yakar, brought in $6,000 (Lot 140), beating its initial estimate of $3,000-4,000. A Zhitomir edition of Psalms garnered $7,500 (Lot 460) and the Vilna Gaon’s commentary to Mishlei fetched $7,500 (Lot 119). Midrashic works fared just as well, with a First Edition Mechilta realizing $12,000 (Lot 349) and a Second Edition Sifra- Torath Kohanim accomplishing $5,500 against an estimate of $1,000-$1,500 (Lot 353).
Medieval Pietistic compositions proved exceedingly popular in this sale. The First Edition of Rabbeinu Yonah’s Sha’arei Teshuvah was hammered in at $40,000 (Lot 168) while the First Edition of Sepher HaChassidim achieved $16,000, against its estimate of $4,000-6,000 (Lot 226). The First Edition of Orchoth Tzaddikim sold for $6,500 (Lot 386) and two copies of Chovoth HaLevavoth both sold for more than twice their estimates (Lot 42 and Lot 43) testifying to the notable interest in this field.
Liturgical works also fared well. An immaculate Basle prayerbook dating to 1579 brought in $50,000 (Lot 261) and a miniature set of Festival Prayers printed in Jerusalem fetched $11,000 (Lot 306). Perhaps the most impressive lot in the sale, the First Edition incunable of Abudarham, printed in Lisbon, 1489, was hammered in at $90,000 (Lot 7). Finally, a Selichoth printed at Slavita garnered $9,500- nine times more than its original estimate of $1,000-1,500 (Lot 301).
Competitive bidding was also seen for classic Halakhic texts. The Bomberg Edition of Alfasi’s Rif- Sepher Halachoth sold for $34,000 (Lot 14) while Maimonides’ Mishnah Torah, printed with Joseph Karo’s Keseph Mishnah for the first time, achieved $15,000 (Lot 373). The First Editions of Israel Isserlein’s Terumath Hadeshen and Pesakim U’Kethavim brought in $5,500 (Lot 213). The First Edition of Solomon Luria’s Yam Shel Shlomo to Bava Kama garnered $3,400 (Lot 328) and Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller’s Ma’adnei Yom-Tov fetched $3,600 (Lot 194).
In Kabbalah, the First Edition of the Zohar accomplished $20,000- five times its initial estimate (Lot 414). Likewise, the First Edition of Moses Cordovero’s Tomer Devorah realized $12,000 (Lot 101) and the esoteric Megaleh Amukoth was hammered in at $9,500 (Lot 425).
More broadly focused works of Jewish Philosophy saw the First Edition of Shnei Luchot Haberith achieve $10,000 (Lot 195). The entirety of the Maharal of Prague’s First Edition works were snatched up (Lots 317-324), while RaMBaN’s Torat Ha’Adam brought in $13,000 (Lot 374). Both major historiographical texts in this sale were also accounted for- Moses Zacuto’s Sepher Yuchasin was sold for $32,000 (Lot 474) and Joseph Cohen’s Divrei Hayamim garnered $20,000 (Lot 475).
We look forward to our next sale of Fine Judaica, which will take place in late July 2021. For further information, or any other queries, please contact us at 212-366-1197 or Info@Kestenbaum.net.
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LOT 104:
DE ROSSI, AZARIAH.
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Sold for: $5,000
Start price:
$
5,000
Estimated price:
$5,000 - $6,000
Buyer's Premium: 25%
sales tax: 8.875% On lot's price, no sales tax on commission
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DE ROSSI, AZARIAH.
Me’or Einayim [“Light of the Eyes” - philosophy of history].
First Edition. Title within woodcut architectural border. Woodcut diagrams on f. 156r. Scattered Hebrew marginalia in different hands, including one on f. 80r. where the anonymous glossarist hurls at the author the epithet “Kofer.”. On f. 88v. the glossarist has provided us with a variant in which De Rossi specifies two passages his foes pressured him to delete (see Mehlman, Genuzoth Sepharim, p. 36). On ff. 32r., 187-188, Italian marginalia.
ff. 194. Small portion of f. 8 torn and few words supplied in manuscript. Stained. Later calf, rubbed. Sm.4to. Vinograd, Mantua 138; Mehlman 1327; not in Adams.
Mantua: n.p. 1574
“The Me’or Einayim became so important that it rendered its author as one of the greatest, or perhaps the very greatest, of Jewish historians who flourished in the seventeen centuries between Josephus and Jost.” (S. Baron, Azariah de Rossi’s Attitude to Life, in: Studies in Memory of I. Abrahams (1927), p.12). Azariah de Rossi of Mantua (c.1511 - c.1578) was a member of the Min ha-Adumim family, one of Italian Jewry’s oldest and most distinguished families. Legend has it that their ancestors were brought to Rome as captives from Jerusalem by Emperor Titus. De Rossi’s controversial Me’or Einayim questioned conventional medieval wisdom and introduced fundamental changes in chronology. De Rossi rehabilitated the works of the Alexandrian philosopher Philo Judaeus, who had been ignored by Jewish scholars for almost 1500 years. He exposed the much vaunted “Jossipon” as an early medieval compilation based on the works of Josephus, though with much falsification. In the spirit of the Renaissance, de Rossi turned to critical analysis and made use of the Apocrypha and Jewish-Hellenistic sources in his study of ancient Jewish history and texts. Most contentiously, he suggested that Midrashic literature was employed as a stylistic device “to induce a good state of mind among readers, ” and thus not to be taken literally. Such statements led the Me’or. Einayim to be viewed as heresy and it was banned by the rabbinic authorities upon publication. De Rossi re-issued the work the same year, making changes to the offending passages and adding an apologetic postscript. However, some prominent rabbis decreed that those below the age of 25 should be prevented from consulting the book. De Rossi himself was spared chastisement due to his personal observance of Halachic practice. This copy contains the “Mahaduroth” (ff. 185-186), which are a series of addenda and corrigenda. These are followed by “Lu’ach ha-Perakim, ” a table of contents (ff. 187-188). Also present are the “Hasagah, ” the criticism by De Rossi’s fellow Mantuan, R. Moses Provenzali, of the author’s revisionist chronology (ff. 189-190), and De Rossi’s reply to that criticism, “Teshuvah la-Hasagah” (ff.191-194). Mehlman points out that some exceedingly rare copies of Me’or Einayim have an insert of 6 leaves between ff. 186-187 with the heading “Mahadura Sheniyah, ” in which De Rossi was forced to fend off further attacks upon his work. Fascinatingly, de Rossi writes here that knowledge of the "New World" (his words) was known by the Rabbis of the Talmud. For as early as King Solomon's time, the Americas were "well known…travelers would come and go…from the Land of Ophir and Parvaim (see Kings I, chap X v.22) - there is no doubt this is the Land of Peru." De Rossi states that the reason the Greek geographer Ptolemy did not depict the American Continent in his maps, was because such knowledge "had disappeared from human memory." (Meor Einayim p. 159a et seq). See M. Silber, America in Hebrew Literature, in: Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, Vol. XXII (1914) pp. 101-37, 114-15 and 121; R.J.H. Gottheil, Columbus in Jewish Literature, in: American Jewish Historical Quarterly (1894) pp.129-37; J. Weinberg, The Light of the Eyes (2001). And see Carmilly-Weinberger, Censorship & Freedom, pp. 210-13; I. Mehlman, Genuzoth Sepharim, (1976) pp. 21-39; S. Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua, pp. 634-637; EJ, Vol. XIV, cols. 315-18.
