Bidspirit auction | Shnei Luchot HaBrit – A

Shnei Luchot HaBrit – A Magnificent and Rare Edition. “Shelah Nachat.” - Shnei Luchot HaBrit – A Magnificent and Rare Edition. “Shelah Nachat.” The renowned work Shnei Luchot HaBrit by Rabbi Yeshayahu HaLevi Horowitz, known as the “Shelah” (an acronym for the book’s title). Amsterdam, 1698. A complete and especially elegant copy. Before the regular title page appears a splendid engraved copperplate frontispiece, signed by the artist Avraham ben Yaakov, the famous convert to Judaism who also signed the celebrated Hebrew map in the Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695. Also included are separate title pages for the sections “Vavei HaAmudim” and “Toldot Adam.” A particularly fine and impressive printing — a full and deluxe edition of the Shelah that includes “Vavei HaAmudim, ” authored by the author’s son, Rabbi Sheftel Horowitz, as well as the section “Toldot Adam” with comprehensive indices. This foundational work, printed in the year “Nachat” (1698), became over time highly sought after and was regarded as especially auspicious, since the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chassidic movement, was born in that same year. [4], 22, 44, [12] leaves. Size: 30.5 cm. Condition: Very good. Light professional restoration in the upper white margins of the engraved title and the following leaf, with minimal loss of a single letter. Half-leather modern binding, elegant and refined. A particularly impressive and complete copy of one of the most important Kabbalistic and Chassidic works in the history of Hebrew printing.