Haggadah shel Pesach... Service for the Two First Nights of Passover. According to the Custom of the Spanish, Portuguese, and German Jews.

London, David Levi, 1794. . First edition; small 4to (21.5 x 13 cm); modern marbled leather-backed marbled boards, spine gilt; browning and staining to leaves, faded stamp to title; closed tear to leaf 35; leaves 37-39 supplied; last leaf repaired with some English text loss; text in Hebrew, English and Ladino. [1], 39, [3] ll. Combined Ashkenazic and Sephardic Haggadah published by David Levi, one of the pioneers of Jewish printing in London. Starting from the 1770s, several Hebrew prayer-books and Haggadot were printed in London for the first time by three different Jewish publishers: A. Alexander and Son; Yedidya, Gershon and Issachar; David Levi. All publications by these printers are considered to be very rare, with only a small number of surviving copies. David Levi (1742-1801), was an erudite Whitechapel cobbler and one of the most remarkable characters of 18th-century English Jewry. He was born in London and after failing to make a living as a shoemaker, went to the opposite extreme and became a hatter, meanwhile continuing his studies at the Great Synagogue of London. In 1783 he produced a succinct account of the 'Rites and Ceremonies of the Jews, in which their religious principles and tenets are explained'. From that date onwards, he was constantly engaged in literary work, in the intervals of trying to earn his livelihood. He produced grammars, dictionaries, apologetics, pamphlets and polemics. For years on end he was a one-man Anti-Defamation Committee, always prepared to fight with his quill whenever the good name of Jews or Judaism was impugned. In addition, he produced a series of liturgical and other translations, considered to be superior to A. Alexander's. Alexander, who was a well-known and established rival London-Jewish publisher, saw in Levi an imitator. ESTC T147183; Vinograd, London 137, Yaari 254; Yudlov 371. Not in Yerushalmi.