Bidspirit auction | (CEREMONIES). Minhagim. Prepared by Shimon

(CEREMONIES). Minhagim. Prepared by Shimon HaLevi Günzburg. With Yiddish in waybertaytsch font. Printer’s device on title-page. ff. 66 (of 74) lacking ff. [1]-5, 37, 41, 74 (ff. [1]-5 and 74 replaced in facsimile). Stained, neat marginal repairs throughout, with slight loss of text on a few leaves. Modern tan elegantly blind-tooled calf; housed in a matching tan slipcase. Sm. 4to. Venice, Giovanni di Gara, 1589. The Exceptionally Rare First Edition of this Canonical Yiddish Book of Customs. A classic, comprehensive compendium of Ashkenazic custom for the entire liturgical year. Produced in Yiddish, it is based in large part on the text compiled by Yitzhak Tyrnau in the first half of the fifteenth century, but it also expands on the latter’s work with explanations of various practices and additional comments on ritual and religious life. Günzburg’s Minhagim was aimed at the entire Ashkenazic Diaspora. It also included the customs of Ashkenazim living in the Rhine Valley, as well as in Italy, Moravia, Bohemia, and Poland. Only one single complete copy is extant housed at The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York. Three incomplete copies are held by the National Library of Israel, the Butler Library of Columbia University, and the Berlin Staatsbibliothek.