Obj. ID: 44699
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts  Fugger’s Fifth Venetian Miscellany on Philosophy, Venice, c. 1552

1. Sefer ha-Kanah ( ספר הקנה ) attributed to Nehunya ben ha-Kanah (fols. 1-274): begins טעמי המצוות על דרך הנסתר (Kushnir-Oron 1982).

2. Dodi ve-Nekhdi ( דודי ונכדי ; lit. My Uncle and my Grandson) by Berechiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan (fols. 275-300v) (Gollancz 1920).

3. Sefer Emunot ve-Deot ( ;ספר אמונות ודעות The Book of Beliefs and Opinions) by Saadiah Gaon in an anonymous translation (fols. 301-526): begins פתרון ספר האמונות וחרצב הדעות (Steinschneider 1895:440). Fragment of this text in Munich: BSB Cod.hebr. 65 (fols. 20v-21).

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Dark green leather, turned brown, on wooden boards (340 x 230 mm); gold-tooled with a central roundel on the front and a shield on the back cover in 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 פילושוך ; below are the letters EEEEE. 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 groups 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 of the opposite cover. The leaves are gilt-edged.

This binding was made for Fugger by the ‘Fugger Binder’ in Venice (Hobson 1999:119-129). Similar bindings in BSB: e.g. Cod.hebr. 19, 27, 33, 39, 47, 51, 55, 59, 61, 65, 66.

Watermarks on flyleaves: An anchor within a circle beneath a star at the centre of the folio (65 mm): similar to Harlfinger 1974-80, Ancre 24-31 (Venice, 1556).

None.

Owners’ inscriptions: None.

Inscriptions of librarians and researchers: 

Front flyleaf, verso: an inscription in brown ink by Librarian 1a: טעמי המצוות על דרך הנסתר/ גם הספר הנקרא דודי ונכדי/ גם ספר פתרון הממונות וחרצב הבינות. 

Taame hamitzuos cabbalisticae. i. aitiologia legum Mosaicarum autore Cana filio Gedor Sepher dodi vel Nacri, continent quaestiones miscellaneas, philosophicas et theologicas Pithron sepher hamemunos interpretation libri stamemunos in fidei.

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 x 155 mm) with the arms of Elector Maximilian I of 1638 (Dressler 1972: B3ab), stuck over his earlier exlibris (175 x 135 mm) of 1618, before he became elector in 1623 (Dressler 1972:A3a-f).
On the front and back flyleaves and fol. 526a there is an oval 20th century stamp of the BSB: BIBLIOTHECA REGIA MONACENSIS.

Old signatures
Back cover, upper right part in black ink: Stat.? n. 24 (second signature of Fugger’s library).
Front cover, lower part in black ink: 2. n. 17 (Duke’s library, Prommer’s signature).
Front flyleaf, verso, lower part in red ink: 2.17 (Duke’s library, Prommer’s revision of 1583).
Front pastedown, upper right corner: MS.Hebr. 37.
Front and back pastedown in pencil: Cod.hebr. 42 (current signature).
Stickers, on back pastedown and spine, in ink: Cod.hebr. 42 (current signature).
On the exlibris in pencil and on the back pastedown: Cod.hebr. 42 (current signature).