Hebrew Psalms. 1566 Sefer Tehilim, Psalterium. Editor Opitz. Published by Krafft in Wittenberg

1566 Hebrew Sefer Tehilim, or Psalterium, with the edits of Heironymus Opitz the Younger, who at the time was working in the church of his father in Wittenberg after attending the University of Wittenberg. He later became a professor of theology and Hebrew at the University of Jena.

A 1572 inscription of a student from Silesii (modern Poland) but studying at Wittenberg is on the title page and (likely) their annotations fill three pages of the blank front binder's endpapers.

Also, loose in the book is the bookplate of Cristoph Wentzel, Graf von Nostitz, who lived from 1648-1712 and was also located in the Silesii region. This bookplate was probably removed from an earlier binding. To see an exact and attributed match, see the Univ. of Penn. book shelf marked GrC Ar466 T14 1662 Folio.

Not common to market, but I did find three examples - Kestenbaum 3rd April 2008 auction, lot 51, estimate $800-1200, Ludwig Rosenthal (bookseller) EUR 1000, and Christie's 6 Dec 1995 sale, Lot 18, (realized $1,150 USD).

Bibliographic Details -

Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) number 661277, 14 copies recorded (all in German libraries).

Worldcat OCLC catalogue number 43132893, 49578341 and 936381601. Copies recorded at Carleton College MN, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge.

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 15.5 x 9.5 x 2 cm. Signed in gatherings of eight (octavo). Blue cloth case binding. Marbled endpapers. Title page with printer’s mark. Latin introduction and Hebrew text.

Pages – Not paginated

Collation – a8, A-T8

Collates complete.

Condition -

See pictures. Fresh case rebinding, with new marbled endpapers, new endbands and page edges trimmed; book appears somewhat modern. Binding just slightly out of square. Loose bookplate, presumably from an earlier binding. Two (of 3) front blank endpapers with notes.

Title page with a stain towards fore-edge, a 16th century ex-libris near the bottom and an impression from a library. A handful of other leaves throughout with same impression. 2nd-4th leaves all have the same mark as the title page.

Text block is toned throughout with an occasional fox spot. 1” tear at bottom of leaf signed 5N. An occasional moisture mark from gutter throughout. Upper corner of text block bumped near rear leaving a dog-ear like wave in corner. 2nd to last leaf with an ink stain. Last leaf with a repair along fore-edge and pencil notes on rear. Psalms 6, 32, 51, 130 and 148 with annotations.