Joseph and his Brethren: Three Ladino Versions (Poema de Yosef. Coplas de Yosef ha-Saddiq. Sefer ha-Yasar [Joseph's Tale]

Culver City, CA: Labyrinthos, 1990. Limited edition. Hardcover. Very good. 1/300. 4to. xx,315pp. Silver-stamped black cloth with silver lettering on spine. Fine copy with three Ladino adaptations of the biblical Joseph narrative. 1) Poema de Yosef: A late fourteenth or early fifteenth-century poetic version of the Joseph tale, composed in Spain and remaining popular in the Ottoman Jewish communities after the 1492 Expulsion of the Jews. 2) Coplas de Yosef ha-Saddiq: composed before 1732 by Abraham Toledo and popularized throughout the Ottoman Empire, this (truncated) extensive poetic work which includes many sequences meant to be sung has survived in two versions, one shorter than the other; the larger, printed in Constantinople in 1732, and the shorter, printed in Belgrade in 1861 but based on the now lost Salonica edition from 1755. 3) Joseph's Tale in the Ladino "Sefer ha-Yasar": written originally in a biblical Hebrew style within the medieval Jewish tradition of pseudo-historical and legendary narratives, imitating non-Jewish models of epic chronicles and romances of chivalry, the Sefer ha-Yasar dedicates a third of its text to the life and tribulations of Joseph. (M. Lazar). Technical editor: Robert Dilligan. Tiny bump on bottom edge of front cover. Text in Hebrew and Spanish with some English. Volume 5 of the series "The Sephardic Classical Library." Unnumbered edition limited to 300. Fine condition. (Inventory #: 23107)