Zohar Harakiah [commentary to the poetic Azharoth of Solomon ibn Gabirol].
Auction 94 |
Thursday, June 17th,
2021 at 11:00am
Rare & Excellent Hebrew Printed Books: From the Library of Arthur A. Marx
Lot 109
DURAN, SHIMON BEN TZEMACH.
Zohar Harakiah [commentary to the poetic Azharoth of Solomon ibn Gabirol].
Constantinople: Joseph ben Ayad Kabesi for Samuel ben David ibn Nahmias 1515
Est: $15,000 - $20,000
PRICE REALIZED $15,000
<<A FINE, CRISP COPY OF AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE WORK.>>
One of the foremost halachic decisors of North African Jewry, R. Shimon ben Zemach Duran (the Rashba’tz, 1361-1444), a native of the isle of Majorca, was one of three prominent rabbinic leaders who fled to Algeria in the year 1391 in order to escape anti-Jewish riots in their native Spain - the other two being R. Isaac ben Shesheth Perfet (Riva”sh) and R. Ephraim b. Israel Elankawa (buried in Tlemcen). See EJ, Vol. IX, col. 32; JE, Vol. I, p. 437.
The rarity of this first edition and the importance of the work prompted Yosef Shaul Nathanson to add his own scholarly notes to the second edition which did not appear until 1858.