Valmadonna Trust Library
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The Valmadonna Trust Library was a collection of 13,000 printed books and manuscripts printed in Hebrew or in Hebrew script. It was sold by the Trustees in January 2017 to the National Library of Israel (NLI).[1] It is named after Valmadonna, a small town near Alessandria in north-west Italy with longstanding connections to the Lunzer family.[2] The collection encompasses works from throughout the world, particularly Italy, "the cradle of Hebrew printing",[3] and covers over a millennium; many items in the collection are rare or unique, and many date back to the earliest Hebrew printings.[2][3] Before it was acquired by the NLI, Arthur Kiron, curator of Judaica collections at the University of Pennsylvania, said, "I don't know any other collection quite like it in private hands. It even rivals some of the great institutional collections in the world."[3]
Notable items in the collection include the following:
- A well-preserved set of the Babylonian Talmud (1519–23) designed by a panel of scholars and codifying many aspects of how the Talmud is laid out, printed in Venice by Daniel Bomberg; Lunzer acquired this in 1980 from the collection of Westminster Abbey in exchange for a 900-year-old copy of the Abbey’s original Charter, and supporting endowments, fulfilling a 25-year dream.[2][3] This item was sold in 2015, see below.[4]
- A Hebrew Bible from England (known as the Codex Valmadonna I), handwritten in 1189 and looted the next year during the destruction of the Jewish community of York, which is the only known surviving Hebrew Bible from England dated prior to the expulsion of the Jews in 1290 under King Edward I.,[2][3]
- A Franco-German Pentateuch, probably written in the 10th or 11th century
- A 12th-century scroll of the Pentateuch from the Samaritans, written in the Samaritan alphabet.[2]
- The first Mikraot Gedolot
- The earliest dated illustrated Haggadah of Pesach known to exist, printed in Prague in 1526.[2]
- A Pentateuch from Constantinople dated 1547, containing Spanish and Greek translations written using Hebrew script.[2]
- One of the first illustrated Hebrew books: A 1492 Mishna with commentary by Maimonides
- The first book printed in Lisbon, 1489, Nahmanides’ commentary on the Pentateuch.
- A 19th-century copy of A Thousand and One Nights from Calcutta, in Arabic spelled out in Hebrew script.[2]
- An illustrated guide for shechita from early 20th-century Pakistan, with Hebrew and Marathi on facing pages.[2]
- A copy of every Hebrew book published in Cremona during the ten-year period such printing was allowed, ending in the 1560s.[2]
- The first book ever printed in Turkey, a 1493 copy of the Arba'ah Turim.[2]
- The first book ever printed in Africa, a Hebrew book about prayer from Fez dated 1516.[2]
- The first scientific work printed in Portugal, by Abraham Zacuto in 1496.[2]
- An 1848 copy of the Communist Manifesto in German, one of eleven surviving copies of the first edition's February 1848 second printing in London.[5]
- A Book of Psalms with part of its Radak commentary crossed out by a Christian censor.
- A 1666 Dutch newspaper with a front page headline and article describing Sabbatai Zevi.
- A Venice Sukkah decoration from 1783.