Five Books of the Torah and Haftarot, With English Translation – First Edition of a Jewish Translation of the Torah ...

Five Books of the Torah and Haftarot, With English Translation – First Edition of a Jewish Translation of the Torah into English – London, 1785

Five Books of the Torah and Haftarot – Chumash with English translation. London: Alexander son of Yehudah Leib and his son Yehudah Leib, 1785. Hebrew and English.
The present volume is the first edition of the Five Books of the Torah, printed with a Jewish translation into English (alongside the Biblical text in Hebrew). The text and translation appear in facing columns.
Thick volume. Fine illustrated title page, with portraits of Moses and Aaron, an illustration of a person reading the Torah, and an illustration of a person lifting up a Torah scroll. Detailed English title page to the book of Bereshit. Shortened title pages were printed for the other books (in English only).

[133]; [116]; [86]; [98]; [88] leaves. 20.5 cm. Overall good condition. Stains. Light wear to some leaves. Tears to several leaves, including an open tear to margin, not affecting text. Paper repair to second leaf. Restored early leather binding, with a new spine. Damage to binding.

In some copies the illustrated general title page is bound in additional places in the book (the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book records a copy in which the title page also appears before the books Shemot and Vayikra; and there is known to be a copy in which the title page is bound at the beginning of each of the five books). In the present copy, the illustrated title page appears only at the beginning of the volume.