Obj. ID: 44706
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts  Fugger’s Venetian Mekor Hayyim by Samuel Zarza, Venice, 1552

Mekor Hayyim ( מקור חיים ; Source of Life) by Samuel Zarza (fols. 1-536). Another copy in Munich, BSB Cod.hebr. 7 from Fugger’s Venetian group. 1st ed. Mantua 1559.

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Dark green leather on wooden boards (342 x 228 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 ספר/ מקור , and below are the letters LLLL. 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’ in Venice (Hobson 1999:119-129). Similar bindings in BSB: e.g. Cod.hebr. 19, 27, 33, 39, 42, 47, 55, 59, 61, 65, 66.

Watermarks on flyleaves: None.

None.

Owners’ inscriptions: None.

Inscriptions of librarians and researchers:
Front flyleaf, verso: an inscription in brown ink by Librarian 1a:
ספר מקור חיים אשר/ חברו הר' שמואל צרצה/ שץ הנכ קרא בלשון הקדש/ אבן סנה על חמשה/ חומשי תורה. 

On the left by Librarian 3 in greyish brown ink: Sephaer mekor haim eschaer\ habru haribi Schmuel\ Zarza hanikra bilschon\ hakodesch aebaen Sene\ al hemischa humsche\ tora. Under it: Rabi Samuelis de Zarza commentarius in Pentateuchum\ qui vocatur Mekor haijm. i. Scaturigo viua. 

Front pastedown, in plummet on the exlibris: 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 flyleaf, recto and fol. 457v there is a 20th-century oval stamp of the BSB: BIBLIOTHECA\ REGIA\ MONACENSIS.

Old signatures:
Front cover, lower part in black ink: 2. n0. 25 (Duke’s library, Prommer’s signature).
Front pastedown, upper right corner in brown ink: MS. Hebr. 46.
Front flyleaf, recto, upper left corner in dark brown ink: n0 18.
Stickers on spine and back pastedown in black ink: Cod.hebr. 51 (current signature).
On the exlibris, upper left corner in plummet: Cod.hebr. 51 (current signature).