Manuscript, Five Books of the Torah, with the Masorah. [Yemen, 14th/15th century].
Large-format volume, incomplete. Fine Yemenite scribal script, vocalized, with cantillation notes, markings for ends of verses, and spacing between sections (petuchot u'setumot). Some of the Pe letters are winding.
The Masorah is inscribed in the upper, lower and right-hand margins. On some leaves, the Masorah is written ornamentally, in micrographic style.
This manuscript contains parts of Bereshit and Shemot, Vayikra (complete, though with damage to text), parts of Bamidbar and of Devarim.
The first part of the manuscript (Bereshit-Vayera) has geometric ornaments in black and red ink in the breaks between the sections.
At the end of the Masorah list in the top margin of p. [44a], the scribe wrote: "May the writer earn merit and blessed be the reader".
[164] leaves (including several leaves from a later period). 34.5 cm. Fair condition. Severe worming to every leaf, significantly affecting text. Damage professionally restored with paper. Several leaves completed in later Yemenite script. Several places repaired with pieces of paper containing text replacement in late Yemenite script. New binding.

Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Arachim – with Rashi and Tosfot and Piskei Tosfot. [Venice]: Daniel Bomberg [1522]. First edition.
A volume from the first edition of the Talmud printed by the famous Daniel Bomberg in Venice. This edition was published in 1520-1523 and was the first complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud. It became the template for all further editions of the Talmud, introducing the pagination and the characteristic page layout customary until today (see: R. N.N. Rabinowitz, Maamar al Hadpasat HaTalmud, pp. 35-43).
Gloss in early Sephardi script on p. 12b. The beginning of an incomplete gloss appears on p. 29a.
Complete copy, including title page. 35 leaves. 36.5 cm. Light-colored, high-quality paper. Most leaves are in good condition. The title page is heavily stained, with damage and tears, repaired with paper. Stains and light dampstains. Infrequent light worming to the margins of a few leaves. New leather binding.

Year-round machzor, Ashkenazi rite, with commentary and laws by R. Binyamin HaLevi Ashkenazi, rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Salonika. [Salonika: Shlomo and Yosef Yaavetz, ca. 1550]. First edition.
This machzor was published for the Salonika Ashkenazi community. It is the first edition of the machzor with the commentary and laws by R. Binyamin HaLevi. Much of the laws and commentaries were later printed in the Sabbioneta-Cremona edition in 1557-1560 and in another edition printed in Venice in 1568. There, the laws and commentaries are titled Maaglei Tzedek, and from then on, they were called the Maaglei Tzedek commentary or Machzor Maaglei Tzedek, and were printed alongside the text of many editions of Ashkenazi rite and Polish rite machzorim. See: D. Goldschmidt, Mechkerei Tefilla U'Piyyut, Jerusalem 1980, pp. 252-265; Y. Yudlov, Ginzei Yisrael, Jerusalem 1985, no. 322, pp. 70-71.
The editor of the machzor and the compiler of the laws is R. Binyamin HaLevi Ashkenazi, rabbi of the Salonika Ashkenazi community and a leading Torah scholar of his times. In addition to the laws, R. Binyamin added to this machzor several piyyutim that he composed, including a lamentation (leaf [187]) relating to the great fire of 4th Av 1545 and to the epidemic which took the lives of four of his children in 1548.
The machzor was printed without a title page and does not contain weekday prayers.
The two volumes contain glosses in Sephardic and Ashkenazic scripts, containing additions and textual corrections. A prayer for the chazzan on the High Holidays is copied before the Yotzer prayer for Rosh Hashanah (in early Ashkenazic script). Censor's deletions in many places.
In the first volume, owners' signatures appear at the beginning of the Selichot for Monday, Thursday and Monday: "This machzor belongs to me, Chaim son of R. Mordechai HaLevi" (deleted); "Belongs to me, Avigdor son of R. Yosef Sofiali".
The first leaf of the second volume appears twice; presumably, one of them was added from another copy. One is bound and the other is detached. The detached leaf bears the signatures: "This machzor belongs to me, Chaim son of R. Mordechai HaLevi" (deleted); "1667, belongs to me, Avigdor son of R. Yosef Sofiali".
Incomplete copy. Vol. I: [188] leaves. Vol. II: [148] leaves (first leaf appears twice). Total: [336] leaves. Lacking 33 leaves: from Vol. I, leaf [1]; from Vol. II, leaves [9]-[10] and last 30 leaves (including the colophon). Most of the lacking leaves were replaced with photocopies. Vol. I: 28.5 cm. Fair condition. Stains and wear. Large slightly-dark stains to several leaves. Dozens of leaves are damaged with heavy worming and many tears, repaired with paper, affecting text (the book was professionally restored, the missing text of many leaves was replaced with photocopies or by hand). Vol. II: 28.5 cm. Condition varies, fair-good to good. Stains and wear. Many dark stains to first ten leaves and dampstains to some leaves. Tears and damage, affecting text. Open tear to one leaf, with loss of approximately half the leaf. Paper reinforcement in several places. New bindings.
Provenance: Collection of Dr. Israel Mehlman.

Derech HaKodesh - Hoc est, Via Sancta... sive Biblia Sacra eleganti et maiuscula characterum forma, Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim, arranged by Elias Hutter. Hamburg: Iohannem Saxonem [Johann Saxo], 1587. One of the first Hebrew books printed in Hamburg.
Bound in a fine, early parchment binding, featuring a blocked armorial stamp and the initials I.E.M.B.
This Hebrew Bible, known as Hutter's Hebrew Bible, was prepared by the Hebraist Elias Hutter, professor of Hebrew at the Leipzig University. Hutter aspired to produce a Bible which would be easy to read, and would facilitate the study of Hebrew. He therefore printed it using two different types – the root letters were printed in regular, thick type, whilst the inflectional letters were printed in hollow type. The root letters which do not appear in the word were completed above it in small type.
The editor's foreword in Latin is featured at the beginning of the book, including two tables of Hebrew grammar, with explanations in Latin, and a verse from Psalm 117 in 30 languages.
Bound with:
• Cubus alphabeticus sanctae ebraeae linguae – composition on Hebrew grammar, with many tables, by Elias Hutter and David Wolder. Hamburg, 1588. Latin.
• S. Theologiae Doctoris; Praepositi Berlinensis, In Eliae Hutteri Biblia Ebraea, by Jacob Colerus. Latin.
[6] leaves, 1028, 477-480, 1033-1135, [1], 1141-1572; [60], [2]; [26] pages. Lacking pp. 1029-1032 (2 leaves) from Yechezkel, in their place pp. 477-480 from Shoftim were included a second time. 38.5 cm. Thick, high-quality paper. Good condition. A few stains. Minor marginal damage to several leaves. Stamps and bookplates of the Bucknell Library, Crozer Theological Seminary. Early parchment binding. Minor damage to binding.