Konstantinoplah [Constantinople]: A. H. Boyagian [Boyag'yan], 1873. Item #43536

8vo, Original boards, 2 volumes bound together, 560, 630 pages. 22 cm. 23 cm. In Ladino Only. Title translates as, “The Book of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings Translated into Ladino/Spanish.”

Ya'ari, Reshimat Sifre Ladino, no. 3.

The publisher also issued a more common parallel Hebrew and Ladino bible the same year; this edition, however, is the scarcer Ladino only edition. “The translation of the Pentateuch in Hebrew vocalized square characters (Constantinople, 1547) was the first larger work which the Sephardic Jews of Turkey published in the language 'which the old Jews use. ' Twenty years later the entire Bible was published in several parts, the third of which included the Later Prophets. This translation, which agreed almost entirely with the one that appeared at Ferrara in Latin letters in 1553, was followed by another, in four parts (Constantinople, 1739-45), in Ladino ('entero bien Ladinado'); seventy years later Israel b.. Hayyim of Belgrade issued a translation (Vienna, 1813-16); the Constantinople edition was reprinted at Smyrna in 1838 et seq, and again at Constantinople in 1873, all of these being in Rashi characters.” (EJ)
The Ladino Bible was later used by modern scholars and writers, such as Holocaust survivor and poet Moshe Ha-Elion, as a linguistic reference point to study authentic, traditional Salonican and Turkish Ladino vocabulary.

“All in all, between 1493 and 1940, approximately 260 books and thirty periodicals were printed in Ladino in Istanbul (most of them printed after 1730), out of a total of 758 publications in Hebrew type. As we have noted, early Ladino publications focused on religion: Biblical commentary and texts, religious law, ethics, and prayer books. These topics continued in the nineteenth century, but the majority of publications in the later period were belles lettres, history and biography, sciences, and communal and state laws and regulations.

Of special social and cultural importance since the second half of the nineteenth century were Ladino periodicals, which also served as publishers of books in Ladino. Having initially aimed to “Judaize” the Jews, the objective of Ladino publishing in the later period was to modernize and entertain them, while at the same time attempting to spread Judaic knowledge.” (Rachel Simon, The Contribution of Hebrew Printing Houses and Printers in Istanbul to Ladino Culture and Scholarship)

SUBJECT(S): Ladino literature. OCLC:79281753 & 976898012. OCLC locates only 4 sets of this rare Ladino-only edition, only 2 in North America (Harvard & UToronto).

Well bound with some edgewear. Some markings and an inscription on the title page. Good Condition. Rare and important (PSB-1-29-CC-’+).