MINHOGIM (YIDDISH CUSTUMAL), SIMEON HA-LEVI GÜNZBURG, AMSTERDAM: SOLOMON BEN JOSEPH KATZ PROOPS, 1707
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: SOLOMON BEN JOSEPH KATZ PROOPS, 1707
61 folios (7 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.; 184 x 140 mm) on paper. 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 (stronger on ff. 35v-39r); thumbing; pages closely cropped and somewhat frayed, affecting a couple words on f. 58v; tape repair in upper-outer corner of f. 11; upper-outer corners of ff. 13, [61] lacking, the latter with loss of some text; short tears in outer edges of ff. 38, 45, 58, affecting several words; short tear in gutter of f. 41 and near gutter of f. 45, the latter affecting a few words and the woodcut on the verso. Modern blind-tooled maroon calf; spine in six compartments with raised bands; title, place, and date lettered in gilt on spine; reddish edges; modern marbled paper flyleaves and pastedowns. Housed in a matching blind-tooled maroon calf slipcase, lined with green velvet, slightly worn around the edges; lettering piece with place and date on spine.
After a stint working for Moseh Mendes Coutinho, Solomon ben Joseph Proops (d. 1734) began printing Hebrew books independently in 1702, focusing mainly on liturgical works but also publishing a wide range of titles in halakhah, Kabbalah, and ethics. He and his descendants would become dominant figures in the Amsterdam book trade and would continue publishing well into the nineteenth century. The present Minhogim, “newly printed with much-improved and new illustrations,” indeed included a fresh cycle of woodcuts, modeled after those used in 1645 and 1662 (see lots 78, 81) but with certain modifications: the rabbi delivering his sermons on the Sabbaths before Passover and Yom Kippur is standing on a bimah rather than a pulpit; the child checking for leaven now has a candle in his hand; the Mount Sinai scene omits the divine hand emerging from Heaven to give Moses the Tablets of the Law; and, most significantly, an eighth branch has been added to the Hanukkah menorah, which up to this point had only seven branches. The volume ends with a postscript by the enterprising Proops advertising his many publications, including other Yiddish titles.
Literature
Mirjam Gutschow, Inventory of Yiddish Publications from the Netherlands[,] c. 1650-c. 1950 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007), 50 (no. 162).
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. 17).
Vinograd, Amsterdam 830
Isaac Yudlov and G.J. Ormann, Sefer ginzei yisra’el: sefarim, hoverot, va-alonim me-osef dr. yisra’el mehlman, asher be-beit ha-sefarim ha-le’ummi ve-ha-universita’i (Jerusalem: JNUL, 1984), 220 (no. 1379).