[Biblia Rabbinica, Hebrew] [Mikra’ot Gedolot], Sefer Kehillot Moshe [ספר קהלות משה]. Edited by Moses ben Simeon Frankfurter, 1724–27. Amsterdam. Moses Frankfurter.

[Biblia Rabbinica, Hebrew] [Mikra’ot Gedolot]

Sefer Kehillot Moshe [ספר קהלות משה]. Edited by Moses ben Simeon Frankfurter, 1724–27. Amsterdam. Moses Frankfurter.

The monumental Amsterdam Kehillot Moshe: the seventh Rabbinic Bible, the first produced entirely by Jews

One of the great achievements of early modern Jewish printing: an encyclopedic Hebrew Bible bringing the biblical text, Targum, Masorah and some thirty-six exegetical works together upon the page, including sixteen commentaries never previously printed in a Rabbinic Bible, greatly expanding the traditional Mikra’ot Gedolot.

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Four volumes, elephant folio. Complete. Printed on fine laid paper, with 14 decorative woodcut initial-word panels. Contemporary tooled diced morocco over heavy wooden boards, with elaborate central medallions to upper and lower covers; clasps and catches lacking; edges tinted red. Minor scattered staining. An exceptionally fine copy in its imposing contemporary bindings.

The Kehillot Moshe was edited and printed by Rabbi Moses Frankfurter (1672–1762), dayan of the Amsterdam Jewish community, and represents a particularly ambitious stage in the development of the Mikra’ot Gedolot or “Great Scriptures”: the distinctive Jewish form of the Bible in which the sacred text is physically surrounded by generations of interpretation. It was the seventh Rabbinic Bible and, significantly, the first such edition produced entirely by Jews. Sotheby’s describes it as the most elaborate and technically accomplished Rabbinic Bible then produced.

Its intellectual scope is remarkable. Alongside the Hebrew Bible and Aramaic Targum appear the Masorah Magna and Parva and commentaries by Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Ralbag (Gersonides), David Kimhi, Hizkuni, Obadiah Sforno, Jacob ben Asher and numerous others. Frankfurter substantially enlarged the inherited canon of commentary, adding sixteen works not previously included in a Rabbinic Bible, notably drawing upon later Sephardic and Levantine exegetical traditions.

Among its important first appearances are Frankfurter’s own exegetical works: Kometz HaMincha on the Pentateuch, Mincha Ketana on the Former Prophets, Mincha Gedola on the Later Prophets, and Minchat Erev on the Writings. The four volumes consequently constitute not merely a reprinting of earlier Rabbinic Bibles, but a deliberate expansion and reorganisation of the Jewish exegetical library.

The edition is equally important for the Masoretic transmission of the Hebrew Bible. Frankfurter incorporated the Great and Small Masorah, variant readings of Eastern and Western textual traditions, the differences between Ben Asher and Ben Naphtali, and material concerning accents and vocalisation. Modern scholarship has noted that Kehillot Moshe renewed Jewish engagement with the Masoretic apparatus associated with the great Bomberg Rabbinic Bible of Jacob ben Hayyim while substantially enlarging its exegetical contents.

The page itself expresses a fundamentally Jewish conception of textual study. As the photographs show, the biblical text occupies the visual centre while Targum, Masorah and multiple commentators surround it in progressively smaller types: Scripture presented not in isolation, but in continuous conversation with centuries of rabbinic interpretation. The elaborate initial-word panels and enormous elephant-folio format reinforce the monumental character of the enterprise.

Frankfurter’s prefaces and afterwords also provide unusually valuable evidence for the economics and practical organisation of Hebrew printing in 18th century Amsterdam. He records the difficulty of locating manuscripts and previously unpublished commentaries and acknowledges members of both the Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities who supported the undertaking by purchasing sheets as they emerged from the press. The edition thus reflects the exceptional scholarly, commercial and communal infrastructure of Amsterdam as a major centre of the Jewish book.

The present set has distinguished modern provenance, having formed part of the Valmadonna Trust Library, one of the most important private collections of Hebrew printed books assembled in modern times; it was subsequently offered in the Kestenbaum sale of selections from that collection, New York, 9 November 2017, lot 56.

A monumental expression of Jewish biblical scholarship and the Amsterdam Hebrew press: the first Rabbinic Bible produced entirely by Jews, uniting Scripture, Targum, Masorah and an exceptionally extensive body of medieval and early modern Jewish commentary in four imposing volumes.

Provenance: The Valmadonna Trust Library; Kestenbaum & Company, The Valmadonna Trust Library: Important Hebrew Printed Books, Selections from the Historic Collection, New York, 9 November 2017, lot 56.

Vinograd, Amsterdam 1242; Darlow & Moule 5146; B. Pick, “History of the Printed Editions of the Old Testament, together with a Description of the Rabbinic and Polyglot Bibles,” Hebraica, IX (1892–93), pp. 47–116; Steinschneider 872; B. Barry Levy, “Rabbinic Bibles, ‘Mikra’ot Gedolot,’ and other Great Books,” Tradition, 25, no. 4 (1991).

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[Biblia Rabbinica, Hebrew] [Mikra’ot Gedolot]

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