"Severe Ban" approved by the Vilna Gaon – A Printed Proclamation Against Chassidim – Only Known Copy

"Severe Ban" approved by the Vilna Gaon – A Printed Proclamation Against Chassidim – Only Known Copy
"Cherem Chamur (Severe ban) – organized by Jewish leaders in the city of Vilna at the time and with the approval of the Vilna Gaon". Printed proclamation with the wording of the famous ban against Chassidism from Rosh Chodesh Iyar 1772, by rabbis and dayanim of Vilna headed by the Vilna Gaon and Rabbi Shmuel, Av Beit Din of Vilna. [Lacking place and name of printer, 19th century?].
"Our brothers, the House of Israel… new arrivals have come… suspicious cult of Chassidim… form groups among themselves… therefore the leaders must don the cloak of zealousness… to destroy and annihilate and raise our cries of bans and curses… and as we have uprooted them from this place so they shall be uprooted from all place and not leave any memory forever…".
In 1772, the first ban against the Chassidic movement was announced by the rabbis of Vilna. It was printed that year in the book Z'mir Aritzim V'Charvot Tzurim (Oleksinets, 1772), signed by the Vilna Gaon and two Batei Din in Vilna (altogether 18 signatures). The text in this proclamation has been printed in an abridged form, with an interesting change in the order of the signatures: in the book Z'mir Aritzim, the Vilna Gaon's signature appears in the first line next to the signature of Av Beit Din of Vilna. Here it appears only in the fifth line in the right column. See Vinograd, Otzar Sifrei HaGra, page 219. Vinograd listed this proclamation according to the catalog of the exhibition "Aderet Eliyahu, The Gaon of Vilna: The Man and his Legacy", published by Beit HaTfutsot (Tel Aviv, 1998). This copy is the same copy that appeared in that exhibition.
Printed sheet, 40 cm. Good condition, few stains, file holes.
This proclamation does not appear in the JNUL collection and in the large libraries in the US and Europe and is not known to exist in any private library. To the best of our knowledge, it is the only copy in the world.