Books and Manuscripts

Stassof, Vladimir, and David Gunzburg
L'Ornement Hebreu (Ornamentation des anciens manuscrits hebreux de la Bibliotheque Imperiale Publique de St. Petersburg)
(Berlin, 1905). First edition. Elephant folio, 22 1/2 x 17 3/4 in. (571 x 451 mm). Illustrated with chromolithographic title-page and 26 chromolithographic plates, many printed in gold. With 4to explanatory booklet with plate list mounted on front blank (Leipzig, 1919). Contemporary three-quarter red levant over marbled paper-covered boards, spine lettered in gilt (including call letters at bottom), extremities and boards rubbed and worn, tears and two losses along spine; all edges gilt; loss in top corner and closed tears and repaired closed tears in fore-edge of front blank; very small scattered creasing and some chipping in plates edges and corners; plate edges lightly toned, intermittent light thumb soiling in same.

First edition of this major work on Jewish art, sumptuously illustrated with chromolithographed plates reproducing medieval illuminated Hebrew manuscripts in the Firkovich collection of the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg (now National Library of Russia).