VERY RARE THE FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE COMPLETE HEBREW BIBLE BY A JEW
Item History & Price
Reference Number: Avaluer:564047 | Year Printed: 1858 |
Topic: Bibles |
THE FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE COMPLETE HEBREW BIBLE BY A JEW
A FIRST EDITION (1854) was last offered at Sotheby's for $30, 000-40, 000in 2008
This is an equally rare 1858 stated Second edition.
WITH AN AMERICAN JEWISH FAMILY GENEALOGY
THE TWENTY-FOUR BOOKS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, TRANSLATED BY ISAAC LEESER. Philadelphia, 5619 (1858/9) 4to., 11 x 9 inches.
Title somewhat thumbed, blanks toned and chipped, light marginal spotting throughout, in...ner boards strengthened, but generally very good.
Contemporary black pebbled cloth with gilt ribbon work on both covers, spine relaid and with repairs. Stated second edition, five years after the first but likely identical. VERY RARE with no copies in the auction records on RBH. This copy with family register notes from a Jewish family - the KOHN (Cohen) family of Savannah Georgia. For first edition see Seinard 847; Singerman 1271; Goldman #12, see also J. D. Sarna and N. M. Sarna, in: "Jewish Bible Scholarship and Translations in the United States" in The Bible and Bibles in America E.S. Freriches ed., 1998. Lance J. Sussman "Another Look at Isaac Leesee."
"Isaac Leeser's literary magnum opus and most lasting contribution to Judaism in America was his English translation of the entire Hebrew Bible. Printed in 1854, complete with "short explanatory notes, " Leeser's efforts at biblical translation had actually developed in stages, beginning almost two decades earlier. Leeser's first biblical translation was The Law of God, a Pentateuch in five volumes; although printed in 1845, Leeser actually began the work in 1838"
[FROM RBH citing the 2008 Sothebys sale]