Judith was “profoundly affected on first reaching the city: ‘our feelings of gratitude are indescribable’ ( Private Journal , 192). Attired in ‘bernische and turban’, she was afforded extraordinary honours by local residents. She dedicated a venerated Torah scroll in Safed, was made director of a Talmud Torah in Hebron, and acted as a philanthropist in her own right by heading several women’s charities” ( ODNB ). They visited Palestine again in May 1828 before returning to London. Israel Bartel, who wrote the introduction to a 100-page selection from the Private Journal in 1975, notes that, “unlike other diaries and writings, it was not tampered with by translators nor by others who sought to alter it”, due to its limited circulation as a privately printed text (p. 1). The Private Journal is different to a later journal by Montefiore, printed in 1844, which chronicles a second journey under a near-identical title: Notes from a Private Journal of a Visit to Egypt and Palestine by Way of Italy and the Mediterranean . Also designated “Not published”, it begins with a journal entry dated 1 November 1838. Octavo. Original navy horizontally-ribbed cloth, spine lettered and decoratively stamped in gilt, curlicue centrepiece blind-stamped to covers, yellow endpapers. Spine slanted and a touch sunned, ends and corners bruised with some light wear, cloth starting to split at joint ends (short cloth tear at head of spine neatly secured), single pinhole in upper margins of B5-6, internally crisp and clean with occasional light foxing. A very good copy. ¶ British Travel Writing 114; Robinson 168. Israel Bartel, intro., Private Journal . . ., 1975; Judith W. Page, “Jerusalem and Jewish Memory: Judith Montefiore’s ‘Private Journal’”, Victorian Literature and Culture 27, no. 1, 1999, pp. 125–41. £6,500 [155122] 120 MOORE, Henry. Heads, Figures and Ideas. London & Greenwich, CT: George Rainbird Limited & The New York Graphic Society, 1958 First edition, limited issue for subscribers, number 76 of 150 copies signed and dated by Moore on the frontispiece. This large-format volume of sketches and notes contains one of Moore’s earliest lithographs to be printed at the Curwen Press, the full page colour lithograph “Thirteen Standing Stones”. Folio. Original brown half morocco with blue paper boards by Zaehnsdorf, titles to spine and front cover in white. Housed in the publisher’s illustrated grey cloth slipcase. Auto-lithograph frontispiece in 4 colours on handmade wove paper with
119
119 MONTEFIORE, Judith. Private Journal of a Visit to Egypt and Palestine. London: printed by Joseph Rickerby, 1836 Extremely uncommon first edition of “the first account in English by a Jewish woman traveller” (Robinson), printed for circulation to family and friends but never formally published; a fresh copy in the original cloth. We can trace thirteen copies in institutions worldwide, and only two appearances in auction records. Renowned for her charitable endeavours, Judith Montefiore (1784–1862) travelled extensively in the course of international relief work, alongside her husband Moses. Both were lifelong advocates for Jewish culture and tolerance. Fluent in French, German, Hebrew, and Italian, Judith kept extensive diaries recounting their journeys, which included five trips in all to Palestine. Of these, only her honeymoon diaries and two travel journals are extant. She was also the author of the first Jewish cookery book in English, The Jewish Manual (1846), published 15 years before Mrs Beeton’s classic. The Private Journal covers the Montefiores’ first trip to the Holy Land. Beginning in May 1827, they travelled overland to Italy and by sea to Malta, Cairo, and Jaffa, before entering Jerusalem on 17 October.
64
SUMMER 2022
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker