Bidspirit auction | (BIBLE). A Fine Complete Set. 

(BIBLE). A Fine Complete Set.  Four volumes bound in 17th century uniform full vellum. Venice, Daniel Bomberg, 1524-5. Edited by Jacob b. Chaim of Tunis. With Targum Onkelus and commentary by Rashi, ibn Ezra, Kimchi, Targum, etc. Complete in four volumes. Each with title within architectural arch, initial letters within elaborate woodcut border. Divisional half-titles. Including all blank leaves. * Vol. I: ff. 234 (four early leaves misbound, as most copies). * Vol. II: ff. 209. * Vol. III: ff. 211. Includes Italian ownership inscription: ”Vercelli (Piedmont), 1801.” * Vol. IV: ff. 297. Minimal wear in places, few small marginal worm tracings, title page of Vol. III worn and laid down. Folio. Light wear to bindings, otherwise an excellent set. Vinograd, Venice 99; Darlow & Moule 5085. The Second Mikra’oth Gedoloth (Biblia Rabbinica). The first Rabbinic Bible to present the Masorah. The text of this edition became the standard Masoretic text for all subsequent editions. The first Biblia Rabbinica, printed by Bomberg in 1516-7 was edited by the apostate Jew Felix Pratensis and contained the imprimatur of the Pope. Bomberg soon realized that these two facts marginalized such a Tanach from the Jewish market. He therefore employed Ya’akov b. Chaim ibn Adonijah, newly arrived in Venice (after being driven out of Spain and then Tunis), as editor of a second Biblia Rabbinica.   Meticulous and knowledgeable, the Jewish editor went to great lengths to secure as many Masoretic codices as possible. Hence, for the first time, a printed Hebrew Bible with a marginal Masorah was issued, which, as hoped by Bomberg, was received with acclaim by the Jewish market. Thus, this Bible may be said to be the first Jewish Rabbinic Bible. See D. S. Berkowitz, In Remembrance of Creation (1968) no. 166. A Fine, Wide-Margined Set.