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

BIBLE. (Hebrew). Chamishah Chumshei Torah [-end] With Nikud and cantillation points. Four parts in one volume. Four divisional titles. Opening word of each Book within decorative woodcut border. A Fine Wide Margined Copy. The Estelle Doheny copy. 530 leaves including all blanks as issued. Burn hole in last six leaves affecting some text; last three leaves repaired; some staining at end; minor marginal loss to last folio. English titles lightly penciled in at beginnings of works. Later tooled brown morocco extra, spine in six compartments. All edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Thick 4to. Vinograd, Venice 7; Darlow & Moule 5084. Venice, Daniel Bomberg, 1517-18. FIRST EDITION OF THE BOMBERG BIBLE IN QUARTO FORMAT. THE SCARCEST OF THE BOMBERG BIBLES. Daniel Bomberg, the celebrated printer of Hebrew books, was renowned for having established the earliest Hebrew press in Venice. Publishing more than 200 books over the course of three decades (1515-49), his many accomplishments include the printing of the first Mikra'ot Gedolot, a four volume folio-sized Rabbinic Bible with commentaries (1517-18).   Bomberg was also sensitive to the market demand for a less expensive edition and so sought to garner customers among those readers who were unable to, or simply had no desire to, read the dense Hebrew commentaries and appendices featured in the larger volume.  To further entice Jewish readers, Bomberg judiciously omitted two elements he had included in the folio edition: The dedication to Pope Leo X, and the identity of the volume’s editor, an apostate named Felix Pratensis. The final, unsigned, bifolium here was also added to increase the book’s appeal for Jewish readers. These two leaves list the appropriate Haftorah portions (additional readings from the Prophets following the Torah reading on Sabbaths and holidays) for the entire year. To create the quarto edition, Bomberg had his workers remove the set type en bloc from the formes of the folio edition and immediately had it reset and made up again in the smaller quarto format. This edition then, is nothing less than the folio Bible in a less controversial presentation, coupled with a more convenient format. Daniel Bomberg’s innovative marketing strategy proved sufficiently successful that he printed a second quarto edition, a few years later, in 1521. Based on the clarity of their type and layout, the quarto Bible editions of Daniel Bomberg have long been celebrated as among the most beautiful Bibles published in the 16th century. This particularly handsome and remarkably crisp copy was once part of the collection of the Duke of Manchester, and later became the property of the renowned American bibliophile, Estelle Doheny. Provenance: i. Duke of Manchester (Kimbolton Castle bookplate); ii. Estelle Doheny (1875-1958, her bookplate); iii. Christies New York, The Estelle Doheny Collection, Part IV Printed Books and Manuscripts, 17th & 18th October 1988, Lot 1070; iv. Sotheby’s New York, Important Judaica, 4th December 2014, Lot 40 ($62,500). A Remarkably Crisp and Clean Copy.