Yosef Lekach [commentary to the Book of Esther, with text].

AUCTION 79 | Thursday, November 15th, 2018 at 1:00 PM

The Valmadonna Trust Library: Further Selections from the Historic Collection. * Hebrew Printing in America. * Graphic & Ceremonial Art

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Lot 11

ASCHKENAZI, ELIEZER BEN ELIJAH HAROFÈ

Yosef Lekach [commentary to the Book of Esther, with text].

<<FIRST EDITION.>> Title within historiated woodcut architectural arch. Wider margins. Signed by censors at end. ff. 83. Previous owner’s marks, few stains. Bound in Valmadonna-custom maroon blind-tooled calf embellished in gilt extra, titled in gilt on spine. Sm. 4to. Vinograd, Cremona 47.

Cremona: Christopher Draconi 1576

Est: $1,000 - $1,500

PRICE REALIZED $900

Eliezer Aschkenazi (1512-85) held influential positions in widely scattered Jewish communities from Egypt, Cyprus and Italy to the major centers in Poland (Posen and Cracow), where he died. His Biblical exegesis is permeated with the contemporary rationalistic spirit of rabbinical scholarship. This edition of Yosef Lekach, was the last Hebrew book printed in Cremona, which for a little over twenty years was a center of Jewish learning and printing, amidst the rigid censorship of the Inquisition. See D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963) pp. 306-19. For an analysis of typographical variances found in this edition, see M. Benayahu, HaDephus Ha’Ivri Be’Cremona (1971) pp. 232-33.