Beschreibung:

BIBLE, in Hebrew -- PENTATEUCH (Humash, or Torah) with Aramaic paraphrase (Targum Onkelos) and commentary by Rashi (Solomon ben Isaac). Edited by Joseph Hayyim ben Aaron Strasbourg Zarfati for Joseph ben Abraham Caravita. Bologna: Abraham ben Hayyim 'the Dyer' of Pesaro, 5 Adar I, [5]242. [= 25 January, 1482.] Chancery 2°. COLLATION: [1 1 0 2 8 3 1 0 4-5 8 6 1 0 7-8 8 9 6 10 1 0 11 4 12-13 6 14 1 0 15 8 16 6 17 8 18 1 0 19 8 20 1 0 21 8 22 4 23 8 24 6 25 1 0 26-27 8 28 6 ]. 212 leaves (of 220, lacking 1/1-4 (Genesis 1:1 - 4:26), 10/5-9 [fols. 82-85] (Exodus 25:12 - 28:5), 14/1 [f. 103] (beginning of Leviticus) and 28/4-6 [ff. 218-220] (including the colophon and the final blank). Leaf 8/7 [f. 69] bound after leaf 9/2 [f. 72]. The biblical text of fols 1-4 and f. 103 has been supplied on unwatermarked paper in an early Hebrew hand, imitating more or less the printed Italian square types of the book and providing no clue as to its derivation. CONTENTS: 1/1 r : beginning of Genesis with commentary by Rashi and with Targum Onkelos (4 leaves lacking); 6/10 v : beginning of Exodus; 14/1 r : beginning of Leviticus (1 leaf lacking); 18/1 v : beginning of Numbers; 23/5 v : beginning of Deuteronomy; 28/5 v : line 3,conclusion of commentary; col. 1, line 13, conclusion of paraphrase; col. 2, line 10, conclusion of Deuteronomy, the colophon follows in long lines (2 leaves lacking); 28/6: blank (lacking). Two columns. Vocalised biblical text with cantilation signs in one column, surrounded by Rashi's commentary (in long lines) at upper and lower part of the page and by the paraphrase (in a narrow column) at the outer side next to the biblical text. No foliation, signatures or catchwords. Headlines. To reach even lines in the biblical text, one or sometimes two anticipating letters were used at the end of the lines, in the commentary and paraphrase the same design (up to three letters) and abbreviated words were made use of. Printed in formes. TYPES 1:180 H. (square) [=Haebler 16, 3: '163 quadr.'], vocalised with accents, and unvocalised, for the biblical text, the headlines and the initial words of the paraphrase; 2:90 H. (semi-cursive) [=Haebler 16, 1: '93 kurs.'], for the paraphrase, the commentary and the colophon. Both the square and the semi-cursive types are departing from the contemporary north-Italian ductus in manuscripts, the square types, of the kind as the forms we meet in the fourteenth-century Italian manuscripts (Birnbaum 302), are without litterae dilatabiles (expanded types), the semi-cursive as used from about 1400 to about 1525 (Marx 7) with aleph-lamed ligature and showing a peculiar ligature for the Divine Name. CONDITION: somewhat cropped copy with loss of some text in the outer margins. Leaves 2/1 [f. 11], 3/1 [f. 19]. 14/2 [f. 104], 14/5 [f. 107], 28/2, 3 [ff. 216, 217] mutilated. Inner margins of leaves 26/6-27/8 [ff. 204-214] damaged with some loss of text (partly supplied in an early hand). No traces of expurgation. PAPER: chancery paper, the leaf size varying between 297 x 180mm and 275 x 180mm. Paperstocks: watermark crown, close to Briquet, Les Filigranes , 4618, and close to Piccard, Die Kronenwasserzeichen , I: 101, and watermark crowned fleur-de-lys, Briquet 7224, Piccard, Wasserzeichen Lilie : 655-656. EDITIO PRINCEPS OF THE TORAH, AND INDISPUTABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT HEBREW PRINTED BOOK. On the earliest editions of the Hebrew Bible Lazarus Goldschmidt, the well-known scholar and bibliophile, made the following remark in 1946: 'The educated man knows, indeed, from his knowledge of history that the art of Gutenberg saw its inception with a Latin Bible in the middle of the XVth century. Yet what layman knows when the original text appeared for the first time? Not even the bibliophile knows; although a non-Jewish expert, Count Giacomo Manzoni asserts in his enthusiasm for the book that the first edition of the Hebrew Bible is the most precious book on earth.' FIRST HEBREW BOOK WITH PRINTED VOWELS AND