The first independent Haggadah printed in Venice.

The present lot is the second edition of Sefer zevah pesah (see lot 206) and the first book printed by Marco Antonio Giustiniani. On the title page is Giustiniani’s printer’s device, a representation of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, an image often conflated by Christians and Jews with the Holy Temple that, until 70 CE, occupied the same location. 🗹The banner unfurled above reads: “The glory of this latter House shall be greater than that of the former one, said the Lord of Hosts” (Hag. 2:9). The verse, which in its original context prophesied a rebuilt Holy Temple in Jerusalem that would eclipse the Solomonic Temple, here takes on a more subversive meaning. Giustiniani’s use of this biblical passage was intended to suggest that his fledgling press would overshadow that of his great rival, Daniel Bomberg, though this ultimately proved not to be the case. Nevertheless, the high quality of Giustiniani’s publications, particularly his edition of the Talmud (1545-1551), helped to secure his reputation as a printer of Hebrew books and make his ensign sufficiently attractive to other printers to warrant its emulation.

Provenance

SMS (f. [1r])

Solomon Zalman Srolowitz (?) (f. [1r])

Joshua Ashkenazi (f. [68v])

Literature

A.M. Habermann, Ha-madpis cornelio adelkind u-beno daniyyel u-reshimat ha-sefarim she-nidpesu al yedeihem (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 1980), 26 (no. 21).

Vinograd, Venice 238

Avraham Yaari, Bibli’ogerafyah shel haggadot pesah me-reshit ha-defus ve-ad ha-yom (Jerusalem: Bamberger & ♕Wahrman, 1960), 2 (🐟no. 10).

Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Haggadah and History (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publicati𒈔on Society, 2005), plate 18.

Isaac Yudlov, Otsar ha-haggadot: bibli’ogerafyah shel haggadot pesah me-reshit ha-defus ha-ivri ad shenat [5]720 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1997), 3 (no. 13).