Judaica
By Kestenbaum & Company
Jun 14, 2018
242 West 30th Street, 12th Floor, New York NY 10001, United States

Time in New York: 1:00 PM

Time in Israel: 20:00

The auction has ended

LOT 320:

LUZZATTO, SAMUEL DAVID
(Shada’l). ...

catalog
  Previous item
Next item 
Sold for: $8,500
Estimated price :
$ 5,000 - $7,000
Buyer's Premium: 25%
sales tax: 8.875% On commission only
Users from foreign countries may be exempted from tax payments, according to the relevant tax regulations
tags: Books

(Shada’l). Il Profeta Isaia - Sepher Yishayahu. Chapter One. 32 printed pages (all published) + 2 pages in manuscript. [Not in Vinograd]. Prague, 1842.
     * Bound With: (Manuscript) Isaiah Chapters 2-66. With commentary by Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal). Transcribed by Joseph Shabthai (Giuseppe Sabbato) Basevi. pp. 318.
Manuscript in Hebrew and Italian, ink on paper in two columns. Left column with Italian translation of the text, the right with the Hebrew commentary. Colophon at end. Trace stained. Contemporary boards, rubbed, backstrip lacking. Sm. folio.

Est: $5,000 - $7,000

Samuel David Luzzatto (“Shadal,” 1800-65) was a leading light in the Jewish scholarly firmament of the 19th century. He was a philologist, grammarian, poet, moralist, literary historian, translator and above all a Bible exegete. Shadal was a celebrity scholar in his time who trained two generations of Italy`s rabbis in his position as Professor at the Rabbinical Seminary of Padua and corresponded on all manner of learned topics with both Jewish and Christian scholars world-wide.
     Shadal’s great passion was Bible translation and commentary (Iggerot Shadal v. II, pg. 1414). His process of exegesis involved an intimate give and take with students, to whom he would teach a book and discuss it with them over the course of a year (in the case of Isaiah). Along the way he recorded dozens of insights gleaned from them, each one given precisely by name and honored with a permanent place in his commentary.
     The present manuscript is an inedited version of Shadal’s Hebrew commentary and Italian translation of Isaiah, written mostly in the hand of his student Rabbi Giuseppe Sabbato Basevi (1823-1884), who wrote a colophon at the end.
     Isaiah was Shadal’s masterpiece, his most complete and thorough biblical commentary. An attempt was made to publish an earlier version of the commentary and translation in Prague 1842, but only 32 pages went to press due to lack of funds. The entire Prague pamphlet, with Shadal’s Italian introduction, is bound together with the present manuscript.
     When it finally went to press (Padua 1855) Shadal saw fit to include with it his ten principles for exegesis, and also a description of how the commentary came to be. He noted that the failure to publish it 13 years before meant that he could teach and study the book several more times, for a total of 7, each time correcting and adding material. He writes that copies “are found among my students who are dispersed over many lands.” It is presumed that this manuscript is Basevi’s personal copy. Basevi, who would enjoy a productive rabbinic career in Spoleto, Sabbioneta, and Padua, is mentioned by name in the commentary, as are many other students.
     The manuscript is substantially the same as the published version, but many of the differences are not minor and are too numerous to mention. Material is crossed out, added in and in many cases there are whole lines and comments which were not included in the 1855 publication. For this reason this manuscript is an active window into Shadal’s creative process. The manuscript cannot be dated precisely, but from internal evidence it was written between 1842 and 1847. Several pages seem to be written by a different, unsigned hand.
     In this manuscript commentary Shadal makes abundant use of the classical Jewish commentaries, Christian scholars, classical texts, and modern European lexical and reference works, and his own original suggestions.
     For a related Shadal manuscript, see Kestenbaum Auction Number 73, lot 300.
     With grateful thanks to Shimon Steinmetz, Brooklyn, NY for his scholarly expertise in preparing the description of this manuscript. A more comprehensive research-description is available upon request.

catalog
  Previous item
Next item