Selections from The Valmadonna Trust Library: Highly Important Hebrew Printed Books
Nov 10, 2017 (Your local time)
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The auction has ended

LOT 169:

MOSES BEN NACHMAN (NACHMANIDES /
RaMBa”N). Peirush HaTorah [commentary to the Pentateuch]

Sold for: $30,000
Estimated price:
$ 12,000 - $18,000
Auction house commission: 25%
VAT: On commission only
tags: Books

RaMBa”N). Peirush HaTorah [commentary to the Pentateuch]
Third edition. Printed in Rabbinic type, without nikud. ff. 218 (of 244). Lacking the two blank leaves absent in nearly all copies, ff. 1-7, 131, 187, 230-44 all expertly reproduced in facsimile, ff. 8-19 mounted, some text affected on f. 8. Additional leaves remargined, strengthened, some corners filled, lightly soiled and stained, trace wormed. Modern crushed morocco. Folio. * An additional copy of f. 23.4 (here f. 175) mounted with losses, provided here in separate folder. Vinograd, Naples 10; Goff Heb-88; Steinschneider, col. 1961, no. 6532-50; Thes. A-65; Offenberg 98; BMC XIII, p. 57.

Joseph ben Jacob Aschkenazi Gunzenhauser], [Naples: 1490 .

See Treasures of the Valmadonna Trust Library - Otzroth Ya’akov, Incunables no. 39. The publication of three incunable editions of Nachmanides’ Commentary to the Pentateuch is an eloquent attestation to the immense popularity of the work.
     Only twenty-eight books were printed at the short-lived Hebrew press at Naples which operated from 1480-1500. No doubt the Naples craftsmen would have continued to produce fine books had not the Spanish Expulsion and the subsequent political changes for Jews throughout Europe silenced the activity of the Neapolitan Hebrew presses. See Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy, pp. 63-6.
     Another (complete) copy of this Nachmanides Naples edition in the possession of the Valmadonna Trust Library was exhibited in the Pierpont Morgan Library, see their catalogue: Hebraica from the Valmadonna Trust (1989) no. 13.