HAGGADAH

Sefer Zevach Pesach

      1545. FIRST EDITION. (HAGGADAH). Sefer Zevah Pesah. Venice: Marco Antonio Guistiniani, 1545. Small quarto, period-style full brown calf, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and boards; ff. 67. $18,000. First Haggadah printed in Venice, this is especially notable in containing the Zevah Pesah ("The Passover Sacrifice") of Isaac Abrabanel, "one of the leading figures among" those exiled from Spain in 1492. "Although completed in 1496 in Monopoli, Italy! his Zevah Pesah was not printed until almost a decade later, in Constantinople." This is only the second time Abrabanel's commentary appears in print, and the Haggadah is especially profound in the manner in which he "relates the ancient redemption of the Jewish people and points toward the redemption yet to come" (Yerushalmi 5). With Venetian Jews barred from ownership of Hebrew presses and a bitter rivalry between publishers, the confiscation and burning of all Hebrew books in 1553 makes the survival of copies from this edition even more improbable and vital. "For the generation that had experienced the expulsion from Spain in 1492 the age-old problem of exile and redemption assumed a new immediacy. It was perhaps natural that Don Isaac Abrabanel, one of the leading figures among the Spanish exiles, should have found it congenial to write a commentary to the Haggadah, which relates the ancient redemption of the Jewish people and points toward the redemption yet to come. Although completed in 1496 in Monopoli, Italy! his Zevah Pesah was not printed until almost a decade later, in Constantinople" (Yerushalmi 5). Since Jews in Venice were barred from ownership of Hebrew presses, the owners were perforce Christians; the imprint of the title page notes that this book was produced at the press of Marco Antonio Giustiniani. Five years after the publication of this Haggadah, the house of Giustiniani lost its monopoly on printing in Hebrew and faced formidable competition from an upstart press, the house of Bragadini. A bitter rivalry grew between the two presses, and "the mutual recriminations that the rivals engaged in at the Papal Court ultimately resulted in the confiscation and burning of all Hebrew books in 1553" (Encyclopaedia Judaica), making the survival of copies from this edition even more improbable. As in all Giustiniani publications, the printer's emblem was a fanciful representation of the Temple in Jerusalem, based on the architecture of the Mosque of Omar, the "Dome of the Rock," which stands on the site of the ancient Temple. "European travelers in the Middle Ages had returned from Jerusalem with drawings of the building, and mosque and Temple were easily fused in the popular imagination. Similar representations of the Temple appear in other books, both Jewish and Christian" (Yerushalmi 18). On the dome and below it are the words Bet ha-mikdash, "The Holy House." Furled over the Temple is a banner on which is printed the biblical verse: "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of Hosts" (Haggai 2:9). Yaari 10. Yudlov 13. Yerushalmi 18. Vinograd, Venice 238. Marginal notes in several hands primarily in Hebrew with some Italian, a few instances of apparent self-censorship. Interior lightly stained and soiled, repairs to some leaves, corners rounded. Attractive binding fine. Rare.