Bidspirit auction | (BIBLE. Hebrew). Chamishah Chumshei Torah

(BIBLE. Hebrew). Chamishah Chumshei Torah [Pentateuch]. With Five Scrolls and Haphtaroth. Title surrounded by verses. Separate title for Haphtaroth. Very small type (for which this printer was celebrated for), with nikud. First word in each book within typographic border. Tailpiece. ff. 327. Stained, f. 325 taped with loss of couple of letters. Contemporary calf, rubbed. Two clasps and hinges, a.e.g. 24mo. Vinograd, Amsterdam 602; Fuks 551 (with variations, see below). Amsterdam, Caspar Steen, 1693. FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED BY CASPAR STEEN. The House of Caspar Steen in Amsterdam was a unique phenomenon in the world of eighteenth century printing. Steen was the only non-Jew in this era to print exclusively Hebrew books. See Fuks, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Nertherlands 1585-1815 (1987), p. 416. The unique format of this Bible edition, tall and narrow (later emulated by bibliophile Ephraim Deinard) makes for a most esthetic book. Our copy differs from that of Fuks in a few respects: 1) According to our title, the work was commissioned by Antony Steen (son of Caspar Steen), not by Jacob b. Moses Raphael de Cordova, as in Fuk’s title; 2) In our title for the Haphtaroth, there is no mention of Caspar and Antony Steen; neither do we have the error “giGath egoz” in the chronogram, but rather the correct spelling “giNath egoz”; 3) Though we have the notice of the compositor, Joseph (not Jacob!) ben Moses Segal of Hamburg, we do not have the colophon “Be-Amsterdam bi-defus u-be-veith Caspar Steen”; and finally, 4) In our copy, the final three leaves (ff. 325-327) are numbered, as opposed to Fuk’s copy where they are unnumbered.