Aseifat HaKohen – novellae on the weekly Torah portions collected from the writings of his forebears and his own teacher, R’ Moshe B’HaRav Aharon Tzvi Hirsch of Krakow. Amsterdam, 1732. First edition. Rabbinic signatures from the time of printing.
The author was a descendant of distinguished rabbinic families: R’ Heschel of Krakow, the author of Tosafot Yom Tov and more. The book is adorned by approbations from Amsterdam’s rabbis and others.
The original title page: In the Keren Yisrael anthology (London, 2000) there was a lengthy essay published about this book, which writes about this original title page and its replacement, as follows: “There is a sticker on the title page with the title page text covering the original title page. I was curious to know what it was that the author was anxious to cover on the first title page; this gave me no rest until I managed to separate the add-on. What I discovered was that indeed there were two title pages printed! So what happened here? The answer is simple and interesting – the printer mistakenly left out some lines he had intended to print in the original title page. Instead of removing the faulty title page, which would have required him to reprint the approbations on the back of the new title page, he decided to print the new title page and use it to cover the original title page.” This copy bears the original title page, without the sticker on it!
In the British Library’s collection, there are indeed two copies of the first edition of Aseifat Kohen , one with the original title page (something like this copy here) and the second with the pasted-on title page. This shows that there were several copies distributed before the title page was corrected.
[2], 50, [2] leaf, 24 cm. An article about the title page and this book is attached.
Fine condition. Aging stains. Worming perforations.