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Auction 106 Incunabula and First Editions | Illuminated Manuscripts | Jewish Ceremonial Art
Midrash Rabbah on the Torah – First Edition – Constantinople, 1512 – Schocken Copy
Opening: $30,000
Sold for: $212,500
Including buyer's premium
Midrash Rabbah, on the Five Books of the Torah. Constantinople: [Shmuel ibn Nachmias], 1512. First edition. All five parts, on the Five Books of the Torah, in one volume.
Printed without title page (first page blank). Printed in two columns, in Rashi type. Fine woodcut initial panel. First three parts printed with page headers: "Bereshit Rabbah", "Shemot Rabbah" and "Vayikra Rabbah"; last two parts on Bamidbar and Devarim printed without page headers.
Complete copy, with fine margins, of the especially rare first edition of the Midrash Rabbah on the Torah (also called Midrash Rabbot), regarded as the most important Midrash on the Torah.
Midrash Rabbah refers to an anthology of ten Aggadic Midrashim, on the Torah and the Five Megillot, consolidated over a period of hundreds of years. Its earliest parts are most of Bereshit Rabbah as well as Vayikra Rabbah (ca. 5th-7th centuries); its later parts are Shemot Rabbah, Bamidbar Rabbah, Devarim Rabbah and Esther Rabbah, some of which were probably compiled in their present forms no earlier than the year 1000.
Midrash Rabbah on the Five Megillot is not included in the present edition (it was first printed as a separate book in Pesaro, 1519; the two parts, on the Torah and Five Megillot, were first printed together in Venice, 1545).
Colophon on last leaf (text on upper part of page in special typographic design): "The work was completed… R. Yosef Gabbai and R. Avraham Yerushalmi… whose spirit moved them… to aggrandize and spread Torah among the Jewish people… This distinguished and precious book, the Rabbot, was completed today, 5th Nisan [1512], here in Constantinople…".
Inscriptions in early Ashkenazic script on blank first page: "G-d granted me this as well, and I trust in His kindness [---] [to study] it, I, my offspring and my offspring's offspring forever. So says Cusi son of R. Asher"; "G-d, blessed be His name, granted me to purchase this as well from R. Leib Kulpa, and so do I trust in G-d's kindness to study it, I, my offspring and my offspring's offspring forever. So says the least of the students, Cusi son of R. Asher". The signature appears to be that of R. Meshulam Cusi son of R. Asher, a Torah scholar of Italy and a member of the Beit Din of R. Meir Katzenellenbogen – Maharam Padua, who signed along with him on halachic rulings (see: Responsa Matanot BaAdam 77, 84; his signatures there, from 1545 and 1549: "The least of the students, Cusi son of R. Asher of Montagnana", or "So says the occupied one, least of the students, Meshulam Cusi son of R. Asher of Montagnana"; see further in preface to Responsa Matanot BaAdam, p. 24, note 67).
Another inscription on this leaf, in Italian script: "This is the Book of Rabbot. I, Shlomo Consalli".
Inscription on last leaf (trimmed): "I place my name upon my book that I not be among [---], and this is my name which I place, Shalom son of R. [---]".
Names of Torah portions handwritten in upper left margins of most leaves, and sometimes in other places, in accordance with page's content, as well as a continuous foliation of the book in Hebrew numerals.
A few glosses and various notations in margins of several leaves.
On endpaper, pencil inscriptions by Salman Schocken. At bottom of blank first page, stamp: "Schocken Library, Jerusalem".
Five parts in one volume. [68]; [44]; [34]; [68]; [16] leaves. Last four leaves supplied from another copy. Approx. 29 cm. Fine margins. Good-fair condition; last leaves in fair condition. Stains, including dampstains and traces of former dampness. Wear. Marginal tears and open tears to some leaves in various places, affecting text of several leaves (without loss), partially repaired with paper and tape strips (mainly to last leaves, sometimes bordering text). Slight worming, partially repaired with paper filling. Binding with leather spine and corners. Minor defects to binding.
Provenance:
• Schocken Collection, Jerusalem.
• Sotheby's, London, December 1993, Lot 114.
• Kestenbaum, New York, June 2003, Lot 28.