Rare: Volume of Issues of the Monthly Haskalah Journal HaMe'asef - with a Letter by the Noda BiYehudah!

Rare: Volume of Issues of the Monthly Haskalah Journal HaMe'asef - with a Letter by the Noda BiYehudah!

Volume of issues of the Haskalah journal, HaMe'asef, with all [12] issues from תקמ"ח [1787-1788]. Special title page for the complete annual volume, and introductions. Königsberg and Berlin, 1788. Bound at the end of the volume: Die frühe Beerdigung [on Jewish burial rites, by Marcus Hertz.] Berlin, 1787.

This journal served the maskilim of Germany during the period in which Reform was at its literary peak. It printed important articles on various topics: Biographic articles on Moses Mendelsohn - progenitor of Reform, Menasheh Ben Israel and others; hymns and poems; studies of texts and historic treatises; commentary and current events; philosophy and more. The contributors included: Joel Brill, Isaac Euchel, David Friedländer, Naphtali Herz Weisel, Rabbi Wolf Heidenheim and others. The final issue (Elul), includes a letter in Yiddish printed from Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, author of Noda BiYehudah.

Double leaf printed at the beginning of the book: "Moda'ah Rabbah L'Kahal Adat Bnei Yisrael" announcing the republication of Sefer Meturgeman by Rabbi Eliyahu Bachur with an approbation by Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Berlin and his beit din. This leaf was printed in a smaller format than the rest of the book, and it may be bibliographically unknown. (It does not appear in the copy scanned at Goethe University; the same text was also printed in the Kislev issue as an integral part of the content. This specific sheet was printed on its own; to the best of our examination, this plan did not materialize and the book was not printed.)

[14] leaf, [1] 392 pp, [17] leaf; 35 pp. 18 cm. Leaf 214 features a special picture of a diver.

Moderate-fine condition. Several worming perforation along the length of the book. Aging stains. Light creases and dog-ears. Old binding, slightly worn.