Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 215

JUDAICA
POSTEL (GUILLAUME) Abrahami patriarchae liber Jezirah, sive formationis mundi . . . Vertebat ex hebræis et commentariis illustrabat, Paris, for the Author, 1552

11 November 2015, 13:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £4,750 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

JUDAICA

POSTEL (GUILLAUME) Abrahami patriarchae liber Jezirah, sive formationis mundi . . . Vertebat ex hebræis et commentariis illustrabat, first edition in Latin, E1r in Hebrew, other quotations in Greek and Hebrew, light dampstain in upper margin, very small wormhole in blank lower fore-corner of some leaves, a few early underlinings and marginal marks, contemporary calf, gilt-stamped corner- and centre-pieces on sides, rebacked in calf gilt, paper label pasted on upper cover [Steinschneider 6779; Wellcome 5227], 16mo (116 x 80mm.), Paris, for the Author, 1552

Footnotes

THE FIRST PRINTING IN ANY LANGUAGE OF THE SEFER YEZIRAH ("BOOK OF CREATION"), one of the most important books of the Jewish Kabbalah, which may be said to have "had a greater influence on the development of the Jewish mind than almost any other book after the completion of the Talmud" (Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906). Postel (1510-1581) "was among the most knowledgeable Christian Kabbalists of the Renaissance and his knowledge of Hebrew surpassed that of most of his contemporaries..." (Yvonne Petry, Gender, Kabbalah, and the Reformation: The Mystical Theology of Guillaume Postel, 2004, p.71). His translation and commentary of the Sefer Yezirah appeared ten years before the first publication of the text in Hebrew, issued in Mantua in 1562.

Provenance: "Nutt (from Franchi) 1882: 10/6", inscription inside upper cover.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Presentation Copy of Kennedy's First Book to Spencer Tracy. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963. Why England Slept. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940.

Signed to Spencer Tracy 1952 Hemingway, Ernest. 1899-1961. The Old Man and the Sea, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.

CORNELIUS, MATTHEWS, editor. 1817-1889. The Enchanted Moccasins and Other Legends of the American Indians.

CALEPINO, AMBROGIO. 1435-1511. [Dictionarium.] Calepinus Ad librum. Mos est putidas.... Venice: Peter Liechtenstein, January 3, 1509.

HEARN, LAFCADIO. 1850-1904. [Japanese Fairy Tales.] Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith, [But Tokyo: T. Hasegawa,] [c.1931].

HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. 1899-1961. PUTNAM, SAMUEL, translator. Kiki's Memoirs. Paris: Sign of the Black Manikin, 1930.