MINHOGIM (YIDDISH CUSTUMAL), SIMEON HA-LEVI GÜNZBURG, AMSTERDAM: ISAAC DE CORDOVA AND HERZ LEVI ROFE, 1723
Auction Closed
November 20, 08:47 PM GMT
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
MINHOGIM (YIDDISH CUSTUMAL), SIMEON HA-LEVI GÜNZBURG, AMSTERDAM: ISAAC DE CORDOVA AND HERZ LEVI ROFE, 1723
61 folios (7 3/8 x 5 5/8 in.; 185 x 143 mm) on paper; modern pagination in pencil in Arabic numerals in upper-outer corner. Title within elaborate architectural frame (after the 1645 edition) surrounded by decorative devices; thirty-one beautiful full-size woodcut vignettes illustrating scenes from Jewish ritual life and practice (some of them repeats); twelve smaller woodcuts representing the twelve signs of the zodiac/labors of the months; decorative elements on ff. [1v], 61v. Slight scattered staining (more intense on f. 35v); upper edge cropped, often affecting headlines; small repair near outer margin of f. 40, affecting a few letters. Modern gilt-tooled maroon calf; title lettered in gilt on spine; reddish edges; modern paper flyleaves and pastedowns. Housed in a modern blind-tooled maroon calf slipcase, lined with green velvet, slightly worn around the edges; lettering piece with place and date on spine.
Isaac Hezekiah de Cordova, scion of a family of Sephardic printers with roots in Spain and Constantinople, published Jewish works in Amsterdam from about 1706 until his passing twenty years later, excepting a brief sojourn in Hamburg in the 1710s. Together with the physician, bookseller, and intellectual Naphtali Herz Levi Rofe (Hartog Alexander van Embden; ca. 1696-1767), he produced the present Minhogim using much the same layout as the Proops version of 1707 (see lot 88), but with new woodcuts. Interestingly, while previous editions had set off Hebrew words within the semi-cursive Yiddish text by using a square typeface, this title, from quire two through ten, accomplishes the same effect by printing most Hebrew words in vaybertaytsh font but surrounding them with parentheses – a practice adopted by other Yiddish printers as well.
Literature
Mirjam Gutschow, Inventory of Yiddish Publications from the Netherlands[,] c. 1650-c. 1950 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007), 70 (no. 243).
A.M. Habermann, “The Jewish Art of the Printed Book,” in Cecil Roth (ed.), Jewish Art: An Illustrated History, revis. Bezalel Narkiss (London: Vallentine, Mitchell, 1971), 163-174, at p. 170.
Bertram W. Korn, “The Haham DeCordova of Jamaica,” American Jewish Archives 18,2 (1966): 141-154, at pp. 153-154.
Chone Shmeruk, “Ha-iyyurim min ha-minhagim be-yidish, venetsyah [5]353/1593, be-hadpasot hozerot bi-defusei prag be-me’ah ha-17,” Studies in Bibliography and Booklore 15 (1984): 31-52, at p. 34 (no. 26).
Vinograd, Amsterdam 1210
http://www.tzorafolk.com/genealogy/history/cordova.htm#isaac4-jacob3