Bidspirit auction | Variant with Seven Title Pages!

Variant with Seven Title Pages! Shu”t HaTashbatz, Amsterdam, 5498 [1738]. First Edition. A magnificent copy in an impressive original fish-leather binding. - Responsa of Rabbi Shimon bar Tzemach Duran – An Impressive Copy in the Original Leather Binding, Decorated on Both Covers with Fine and Colorful Floral Ornamentation, a Master Craftsman’s Work. Printed from a manuscript that had remained hidden and preserved among the author’s descendants for approximately three hundred and twenty years. Amsterdam, 5498 [1738]. Four parts in one volume. First edition. A tradition among the Jews of Amsterdam holds that this binding was made of fish leather, handcrafted by the city’s artistic binders. The original bindings of the sefer Tashbatz are renowned for their uniqueness and importance, as all ornamentation and illustrations upon the binding were executed entirely by hand—so that no two bindings are identical. Rabbi Yitzchok Palagi, in his sefer Yefeh LaLev (Vol. III, siman 277), cites the reason that the Rashbatz merited such an exceptionally splendid binding for his sefer: “And I heard concerning the great Rav, the Rashbatz, that he merited to have a great sefer of responsa called Tashbatz printed with incomparable binding and beauty, because he was careful to spread a fine, beautiful, and distinguished cloth over the seforim that were open before him for study.” Several variants of this edition are known, differing in the number of title pages. Copies are known with seven title pages, while others originally contain only four title pages (see Mifal HaBibliographia, and further in Alei Sefer, X [1982], pp. 119–132). The present copy contains seven title pages. Collation: [12], 91; [1], 69; [1], 68, [1]; [1], 101, [1] leaves. Stains. Tear without loss to text on leaf 52 of the third pagination. Very good condition.