Tales from the Talmud; | translation into English by David E. Newman, q.c. & illustrated with eighteen lithographic prints by Aba Bayefsky, a.r.c.a. | with a foreword by rabbi W. Gunther Plaut, j.s.d.
Toronto: ‘privately printed’ [Gus Rueter, Village Press | Cape & Company], 1963 [in roman numerals]. Folio, 54.1 x 35.2 cm. Twenty loose bifolia sheets housed in a grey cloth covered chemise and matching slipcase. The slipcase spine is titled in black. The chemise is printed with the title in blue and a device in black to the upper cover. Its spine is titled in black. Four horizontal bands printed in blue extend across the lower quarter of the chemise’s spine and both of its covers. The chemise is lined with ochre paper; in lieu of an appending sheet, the colophon was printed on the front pastedown. The sheets printed with the text and illustrations are numbered, but not paginated [ll. 40]. The chemise spine is mildly darkened, as are its joints; very mild rubbing to the covers; and a few subtle smudges to the lower cover. The slipcase is smudged and rubbed; there are a few nicks and abrasions along its edges, and some chipping to the head of the spine. The slipcase is good at best. But otherwise, a near fine and internally clean and bright copy. The title-page, dedication, and Foreword by W. Gunther Plaut appear on the first bifolium sheet [ll. 1-2], followed by the Preface by David E. Newman on the second sheet [ll. 3-4]. The text and illustrations follow on 18 numbered sheets [ll. 5-40]. Each of the text and illustration sheets is numbered on the first recto, printed with a double column of text on the first verso, and illustrated with a lithograph by Aba Bayefsky on the second recto. The last versos are blank. The original text from the Vilna Edition of the Talmud is reproduced in the left column, alongside its translation into English by David Newman in the right column. Each of Bayefsky’s 18 lithographs is editioned and signed in pencil. The sheets are all Fabriano Text paper, alternating between grey, white, and cream. “The prints were drawn directly on lithographic plates by Aba Bayefsky, a.r.c.a., c.g.p., c.s.w.p, c.s.g.a., and were printed on a Marinoni offset press by Cape & Company, Toronto, after which the plates were destroyed. The paper is Fabriano Text from Italy. The text pages were designed by Carl Dair, f.t.d.c., employing twelve point David Hebrew designed by Ismar David and used by special arrangement with the Intertype Corporation of New York, and the English in fourteen point Uncial by Victor Hammer. The pages were printed letterpress by Gus Rueter, m.t.d.c. and Toronto Packaging Limited made the portfolios and cases.” From an edition of 155 copies, the present copy being number 130. Item #417
“Rabba [sic] bar bar Hannah, whose stories form the heart of this volume of tales from the Talmud, was a Babylonian sage of the third century. Tradition has preserved many of his legal and philosophic opinions which show him as a man of high imagination, adventuresome in spiritual matters and, incidentally, not afraid of contentious argument. He was an inveterate traveler who changed his domicile a good many times. His fanciful tales are the gift of these journeys and a mirror of his restless soul.
In modern literature these tales would be called ‘tall stories’. They are that, but they are also more. Storytelling for its own sake was not a pastime of the ancient rabbis. Somehow a tale had to convey ‘torah’— truth in its widest sense, a vision of God which could shine forth from every place, even the most unlikely. So in our tales fancy touches on the mystical, for everything in them, from the waves of the sea to the flesh of leviathan, do the bidding of the Holy One.
David Newman and Aba Bayefsky, tender translator and sensitive artist, have combined their talent to recreate the special quality of these wondrous fantasies. The ancient spark of Rabba’s soul has struck the flint of contemporary devotion and from the meeting has issued, in word and picture, this splendid creative flame. May it shine brightly!” — W. Gunther Plaut, from the Foreword.
Price: $1,100.00