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LOT 9:
Very Rare: Second Edition of Midrash Rabbah. Venice, 1545
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Start price:
$
1,800
Estimated price :
$2,000 - $2,500
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VAT: 17%
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Very Rare: Second Edition of Midrash Rabbah. Venice, 1545
Sefer Midrash Rabbot al kol Chamishah Chumshei Torah. This is the third-most-important sefer kodesh after the Tana"ch and the Talmud. A beautiful etching is printed at the beginning of each chumash on about a third of the page. Venice, 1545. Hard-to-find sefer. Offered at auction very few times. Located in the Rare Books Collection at the National Library in Jerusalem.
Second edition of Midrash Rabbah on Chamishah Chumshei Torah, and the first edition entitled Midrash Rabbot. The first edition of Chamishah Chumshei Torah was printed in Constantinople in 1512, and then this edition. This edition has the addition of a passage [in parashah 32, leaf 19 column b, line 35] beginning with the words "R' Chiya ..." This passage does not appear in the first edition.
This copy was printed by the Marco Antonio Justinian press by Cornelio Eidelkind. That same year, the Midrash was also printed by Daniel Bomberg, in almost the same order, with specific differences [a different title page, the first leaves were printed with typographic differences, and the framed titles at the beginning of each chumash were changed to different ones]. We will note that a copy like this one is not listed in the Mifa'lim HaBibliographi'im, nor at auction. (Refer to HaMadpis Daniel Bomberg V'Reshimat Beit Defuso no. 176, 1978).
The books of the midrash are the most important sefarim in the ranking of the Jewish sacred texts after the Tana"ch and the Talmud. The Gr"a of Vilna is known to have said that the Midrashic works contain all the secrets of Kabbalah enshrouded as fables and stories: Sefer HaZohar is the "revealed" aspect of Kabbalah, and the Midrash is the "hidden" aspect of Kabbalah.
201, 201-208 leaf. Without Chamesh Meggilot. Thick, high-quality paper. Signatures and notations.
Moderate-Fine condition. Aging stains. Few worming marks. Professional restoration of the title page, and the first and last leaves. Minor flaws. New semi-leather binding.
