19:26:28


[Login]   
[Book List]  
 
Bidding Information
Lot #    6250
Auction End Date    12/16/2003 1:36:00 PM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Humas
Author    [Marranos - Bible - Spanish]
City    Amsterdam
Publisher    Imanuel Benveniste
Publication Date    1643
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description
   [1], 175, 167-174, [2], 184-129 [i.e. 192], 203-249, [1, 1 blank, 2]; 82 ff, 8 vo., 160:100 mm., final f. in facimile, initial 8 and final 12 ff. backed. A very rare book bound in contemporary gilt calf, modern spine.
          
Detailed
Description
   Pentateuch with Haftorot in Spanish for use of the large Marrano population in Holland. Marranos in Amsterdam differed from those in other Protestant countries in that they openly practiced Judaism almost from the moment of their arrival. Thanks to the Marranos, Amsterdam became one of the greatest Jewish centers in the world in the 17th century; it had some of the finest academies and produced some of the greatest Jewish thinkers.

Immanuel Benveniste (17th century), Hebrew printer in Amsterdam. Benveniste's name appears in an entry in the Puiboken of that city, dated Feb. 10, 1640: "Immanuel Benveniste of Venice, 32 years old, parents still living..." Among the 65 works he printed between 1640 and 1670 are Midrash Rabbah (1641–42), Mishnah (1643), and Alfasi's Halakhot (1643). His outstanding production, however, was the Talmud (1644–48), which restored some passages expunged by the censor in previous editions.

Hebrew typography and publishing in Amsterdam, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, was not equaled by any other city. So highly esteemed was the Amsterdam imprint that even foreign reprints claimed the credit of being printed "with Amsterdam type." How far-reaching the Amsterdam book-trade was may be seen from a document, dated February 7, 1685, found in the city archives of Breslau (Brann, in "Monatsschrift," 1896, p. 476), which advised against the establishment of a Hebrew press in Silesia, "because there are three very large Jewish printing establishments at Amsterdam in Holland, whence books are sent by sea to Danzig and Memel, thus abundantly providing for the Jews of Poland and Lithuania." Besides the printing-house of Manasseh ben Israel, there were those of David Tartas, Imanuel Benveniste, and Joseph and Imanuel Athias.

          
Reference
Description
   Kayserling p. 29; JE; EJ
        
Associated Images
3 Images (Click thumbnail to view full size image):
  Order   Image   Caption
  1   Click to view full size  
  
  2   Click to view full size  
  
  3   Click to view full size  
  
  
Listing Classification
Period
17th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Holland:    Checked
  
Subject
Bible:    Checked
  
Characteristic
Language:    Spanish
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica