It is a measure of the great interest in old Hebrew manuscripts and books that not long after “A Sign and a Witness” an exhibition which brought together 186 Hebrew books and manuscripts from collections and repositories around the world– was shown at the New York Public Library, a new display of Hebrew books and manuscripts was opened at the Pierpoint Morgan Library, Manhattan.Unchanged:
The exhibit is the first public showing outside of England of book treasures from the London Based Valmadonna Library. The Valmadonna Trust is regarded as the most important private collection of early and rare Hebrew books. Originally the trust concentrated on Hebrew books printed in Italy in the 16th century, but in recent decades it has widened the scope of its collection to include valuable volumes produced in other countries and eras.
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Some years ago, the Valamadonna Trust made news when its custodian Jack Lunzer – who is well known in Jewish book circles — succeeded in acquiring though exchange, a set of tractates of the Talmud (made up of the first and second editions of Daniel Bomberg, who started printing the Talmud in Venice in 1519,) which was held for centuries in the library of West Minster Abbey.
It was once believed that King Henry VIII who is known to have consulted Italian rabbis regarding his divorce, had ordered the set because of the tractate on divorce (Gittin). However it has been established that the set belonged originally to a Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford. Unchanged: Of the more than 50 items on display at the exhibit, five are manuscripts; the others are books printed in the 15th (incunabula) and 16th centuries.
The manuscripts include a 10-11th century Humash, evidently one of the oldest in Europe, a Humash with Aramaic Targum, Haftarot and the Five scrolls (with Targum) from England dated Tammuz 15, 4949 (July, 1189) and an illustrated 15th century Pentateuch from Yemen.
Deleted: Added: Brad Sabin Hill, Curator of Rare Hebraica (The Lowy Collection) at the National Library of Canada, who has been serving as visiting curator of the exhibit, writes in the catalog about the English and pre-Expulsion Humash: Added: “It was completed on the eve of a tumultuous period in the history of English Jewry, at the close of the reign of Angevin King Henry II who died in July of 1189. Shortly thereafter, at the coronation of Richard I in September, a riot began which resulted in the sack of London’s Jewry and the slaughter of many Jews. Similar attacks on Jews were made throughout England in the following year, culminating in a massacre in York, in the spring of 1190.”
Added: Hill quotes the chronicler Ephraim of Bonn who wrote about the events in York: Added: “The mob.. then looted the houses of the slain, took away gold and silver and the beautiful books which they wrote, more precious than gold, which were unequalled in beauty and adornment and brought them to Cologne and to other places, where they sold them to the Jews.”
He comments that it is quite possible that the Vallmadonna Codex was among the treasured books of York, which was then a center of rabbinic learning in England and the home of scholars.Deleted: ”
Added: The incunabula and other printed books in the exhibit are provided with precise explanations and are arranged in a manner enabling the viewer to understand the development of Hebrew printing and the spread from Italy where the first Hebrew presses came into existence — to other countries.
Added: Among the 11 incunabula on view are Nachmanides’ Commentary on the Torah (Rome, between 1469 and 1472); Rabbi David Kimhi’s commentary on the Latter Prophets (Guadalajara, Spain, 1482); Tur, Yoreh Deah (Hijar, Spain, 1486-87); Rabbi David Abudraham’s work on the blessings and prayers (Lisbon, 1489) and Maimonides Commentary on the Mishna (Naples, 1492).
The 16th century books on display include products of the Hebrew presses of Constantinople (a polyglot Pentateuch: Hebrew, Aramaic, Ladino and Judeo-Greek, with Rashi’s commentary, 1547 and others). Basle – which was a bastion of Christian Hebrew printing– (The Book of Psalms, 1516, Tractate Shekalim, Palestinian Talmud and Maimonides Commentary on the Mishna, 1580). Venice which is represented by eight books, including, Mikraot Gedolot, first edition of so called Biblia Rabbinica, 1516-1517; Babylonian Talmud, tractate Pesahim, 1519; Maimonides Mishneh Torah, 1574-75, Sabbionetta, Maimonides’ Moreh Nevukhim, 1553; Cracow (Sefer HaAgudah by Alexander Suslin HaKohen, 1571), Lublin and other cities.
Prague, which was the first Hebrew printing place north of the Alps is represented by two very rare Haggadoth. The famous Haggadah of 1526, the oldest illustrated Haggadah of which a complete copy has survived, and the second Prague Haggadah (of 1556) which was produced by a grandson of the printer of the 1526 Haggadah and included most of the latter’s woodcuts.
Only a few copies of the 1526 Haggadah have survived. The one in possession of the Valmadonna Trust is one of two extant printed in vellum. The beautifully illustrated Prague Haggadah, 1526 is a masterpiece of Hebrew printing. Haggadah and Woodcut by my good friend Charles Wengrow, published by Shulsinger Brothers in 1967 as a companion volume to their facsimile editions of that Haggadah is completely devoted to this product of Prague Hebrew Printing.
Of the 1556 Prague Haggadah only two copies are known. Both are printed on vellum. About ten years ago the Valmadonna Trust published a facsimile edition (with an introduction by Prof. Chimen Abramsky) of the 1566 Haggadah in its collection. The other surviving copy is in the British library London.
The well written and lavishly illustrated catalog of the exhibition includes articles on the Valmadonna Library, on early Hebrew printing and on the burnings and censorship of Hebrew books, descriptions of the manuscripts and volumes on display as well as useful bibliographies on Hebrew printing .
The exhibition will be open until May 7.
The Jewish Press, Friday, April 21, 1989