Obj. ID: 44707
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts  Fugger's Venetian Miscellany on Grammar, Venice, 1552

1. Even Hen (אבן חן; Precious Stone) by Menahem ben Solomon (fols. 1-307v): beginsאבן בחן לבנת ספיר דמות כסא בוחנת כל חפץ. Ends with the colophon of the author:ושלמה ועלתה בידי שלמה ומסויימת בשני בטבת בשלשה ועשרים יום לחדש טבת בשנת ארבעת אלפים ותשע מאות ושלש.

2. Nofet zufim (נופת צופים; The Book of the Honeycomb's Flow) byJudah ben Yehiel Messer Leon (fols. 308-457): begins ספר נופת צופים הדור חפץ שפתי דעת. Ends with the colophon of the printer Abraham Konat: אברהם ... בכמ"ר שלמה כונת, which appears in the printed edition published inThessalonikiin 1560 (Bonfil 1981:7-69).

Fol. 307: התחלת העתק הספר יו' ד' ח' אייר שי"ב והשלמתו כ"ט סיון יום ג' (The beginning of copying the book, Wednesday, 8th Iyar 5312 [2nd May 1552], and its completion, on Tuesday, 29th Sivan [21st June 1552]).

Fol. 307v:

ביום ד’ ח’ אייר בעזרת בעל היכולת ית' היתה ההתחלה ביום ג’ כט סיון שי"ב לפ"ק היתה תכלית והשלמת הפעולה בעזר וברצון בעל הרצון בחר בזרע ישראל לו לנחלה. אחר השלמת כל מילה לך יי' אחד מיוחד רומיה תהלה תכלית דברי לך יי' הגדלה ואת ההלנצה בנחוצה נאוצה ורצוצה נעשית בנחיצה אני ראובן בן מהר"ר שלמה

(On Wednesday, 8th Iyar … was the beginning; on Tuesday, 29th Sivan 5312 the operation was complete … I Reuben ben Rabbi Solomon).  

Preceding the colophon the scribe marked his name, Reuben, within the text with acrostics.

None.

Dark green leather on wooden boards (336 x227 mm); gold-tooled with a central roundel on the front and a shield on the back cover within an undulating lozenge in a large rectangle, decorated with floral motifs at the centre of each side and at the corners. The front roundel is inscribed from left to right דיקדוק, and below are the letters QQQQ. The spine, blind-tooled with hatching, has three hidden cords and head and tail bands. On the edges of the front cover are vestiges of four groups of three plaited leather bands, two on the side and one each on the upper and lower edges, with corresponding holes for four nails on the edges of the back cover (for preserved bands see Cod.hebr. 301). Each group of three bands terminated in a ring intended to hook over the nails in the opposite cover. The leaves are gilt-edged.

This binding was made for Fugger by the 'Fugger Binder' inVenice(Hobson 1999:119-129). Similar bindings in BSB: e.g. Cod.hebr. 19, 27, 33, 39, 42, 47, 51, 59, 61, 65, 66.

Watermarks on the back pastedown: A zigzag (43 mm): unidentified.

None.

Owners' inscriptions: None.

Inscriptions of librarians and researchers:

Front flyleaf, verso: an inscription in brown ink by Librarian 1a: ספר אבן בחן/ ספר נופת צופים/ הנקרא רעטוריקא.

Below, by Librarian 3 ingreyish brown ink: Sephaer Aeuen bahon.\ Saephaer Nophaes zuphim.\ Hanikra rethorica, and on the left: Lapis Lydius, opus gramaticus\ et Lexicon. R. Menahem\ Nophaes Zuphim liber de Rhetorica.

Front pastedown, on the exlibris in plummet: the contents in German.

Exlibris and stamps:

Front pastedown: an exlibris of the Bavarian Court and State Library (227 x155 mm) with the arms of  Elector Maximilian I of 1638 (Dressler 1972:B3ab), stuck over his earlier exlibris (175 x135 mm) of 1618, before he became elector in 1623 (Dressler 1972:A3a-f).

On the front flyleaf, recto, and fol. 457v there is a 20th-century oval stamp of the BSB: BIBLIOTHECA\ REGIA\ MONACENSIS.

Old signatures:

Back cover, upper part in black ink: St.9 n0 4 (second signature of Fugger's library).

Front cover, lower part in black ink: 2 n0 30 (Duke's library, Prommer's signature).

Front flyleaf, verso in red ink: 2. 40 (Duke's library, Prommer's revision of 1583).

Front pastedown, upper right corner in brown ink: MS. Hebr. 50.

Front flyleaf, recto, upper left corner in dark brown ink: n0 8.

Sticker on the spine: Cod.hebr. 50(?); and on the spine and back pastedown in black ink: Cod.hebr. 55 (current signature).

On the exlibris, upper left corner in plummet: Cod.hebr. 55 (current signature).