Akeidath Yitzchak [philosophical and allegorical sermons on the Pentateuch]

AUCTION 10 | Tuesday, June 27th, 2000 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art

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Lot 22

ARAMA, ISAAC

Akeidath Yitzchak [philosophical and allegorical sermons on the Pentateuch]

FIRST EDITION. Printed without a title page. Five parts bound in one volume. ff. (290); (94); (72); (102). Lightly browned, dampstained and lightly damp-wrinkled in places, scattered marginalia in an old hand, opening and closing few leaves expertly remargined. Modern blind-tooled deep brown morocco. Thick folio Vinograd, Salonika 29; Mehlman 1220; not in Adams

Salonika: Don Judah Gedaliah, Joseph de Crasto & Eliezer de Arles for Solomon ibn Yakar 1522

Est: $25,000 - $30,000

PRICE REALIZED $26,000

An Exceptional Copy. First edition of a fundamental work of Jewish homiletics. Very seldom found complete. Representative of an anti-Aristotelian trend, directed chiefly against Maimonides and his followers, Arama’s philosophical influence is reflected primarily in the writings of Isaac Abarbanel. The author, affectionately known as the “Ba’al Akeida,” has been consistently quoted and utilized, especially by Polish and Galician preachers, until the present day. Numerous works interpreting Arama’s philosophy were issued through the centuries, of particular note is Israel Kitover’s Biurei Ha’midoth (1875). Arama’s great popularity stems from his stylistic combination of the Aschkenazic didactic and moralizing style with the philosophic tendency popular among Spanish and Provencal Jews. See I. Rivkind, Kiryat Sepher, vol. II p.60. JIM: Place text below image on it’s own page.