Sotheby’s to offer Property from the Delmonico Collection of Important Judaica New York, New York – On December 17, 2008, Sotheby’s will offer an important single-owner collection of Hebrew
manuscripts and rare printed books from the Delmonico Collection of Important Judaica.
News-Antique.com - Dec 05,2008 - New York, New York – On December 17, 2008, Sotheby’s will offer an important single-owner collection of Hebrew
manuscripts and rare printed books from the Delmonico Collection of Important Judaica. Midway through the last
century and unknown to all but a handful of scholars and bibliophiles, a world-class library of Hebrew books and
manuscripts was quietly maintained in the stately Delmonico Hotel in New York. A devotee of Hebrew books
assembled a library there that included one of the world's largest privately held collections of Hebrew incunabula, and
45 tractates of the first edition of the Babylonian Talmud printed in Venice by Daniel Bomberg, including seventeen
tractates of the only known issue printed on blue paper. The 205 lots included in Property from the Delmonico
Collection of Important Judaica will be on view at Sotheby’s New York galleries beginning December 11, 2008
alongside Important Judaica and Israeli and International Art.
Press Release New York For Immediate Release
New York | +1 212 606 7176 | Lauren Gioia | Lauren.Gioia@Sothebys.com | Blair Hance | Blair.Hance@Sothebys.com
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The sale will feature an extremely rare selection of forty-five tractates of the
first edition of the Babylonian Talmud printed in Venice by Daniel
Bomberg, seventeen of which derive from the only known copy printed on
blue paper. While the Hebrew Bible is the foundation upon which Judaism is
built, it is the Talmud, or compilation of “Oral Law”, that serves as the
framework that has given form to Jewish life and ritual observances across the
centuries. We know that individuals often kept written notes of the oral
tradition and scribes hand-copied individual tractates, however in Venice in
1523 Daniel Bomberg, a non-Jew, revolutionized the distribution of the Oral
Law with his monumental compilation of the first complete printed copy of the
Talmud – arguably the single most important event in the annals of Hebrew
printing. Only a single copy of Bomberg’s celebrated first edition of the
Babylonian Talmud was printed as a deluxe edition on blue paper, from which
seventeen tractates will be offered in December in a total of eleven lots,
ranging in estimate from $15/20,000 to $70/90,000*. This offering of First Edition Bomberg Talmuds on blue
paper is as rare as the edition itself. No copies of this unique imprint have been offered for sale in over five decades, and
none have ever been previously offered at auction. Property from the Delmonico Collection of Important Judaica will also
include twenty-eight lots comprising tractates from Bomberg’s first edition of the Talmud printed on white paper with
estimates ranging from $5/7,000 to $25/30,000.
Also among the highlights are forty-one lots of Hebrew incunabula including the first complete edition of the entire
Mishnah with the commentary of Maimonides,
completed in Naples, 1492 (est. $120/140,000).
The commentary on the Mishnah was the earliest of
the preeminent Jewish philosopher Maimonides’ major
writings, begun when he was in his early twenties, and
intended to serve as an introduction for the Talmud. A
number of simple diagrams, such as
