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

AUCTION 14 | Tuesday, November 13th, 2001 at 1:00
Important Hebrew Printed Books and Manuscripts From the Library of the London Beth Din

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Lot 52
ASCHKENAZI, ELIEZER BEN ELIJAH HA’ROPÉ

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

FIRST EDITION. Title within historiated woodcut architecural arch ff. 83. Few light dampstains in places, generally a clean copy. Previous owner’s inscription on verso of title and on final leaf. Recent roan-backed cloth, gently rubbed at spine. 4to Vinograd, Cremona 46; Benayahu, Cremona 45; Adams B-1335; No copy in the JNUL

Cremona: Christopher Draconi 1576

Est: $400 - $600
PRICE REALIZED $500
Eliezer Aschkenazi held influential positions in widely scattered Jewish communites from Egypt, Cyprus and Italy to the major 16th century centers in Poland, 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 twently years was a center of Jewish learning and printing, amidst the rigid censorship of the Inquisition. On the Hebrew press at Cremona see D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963) pp. 306-19 Bibliographers note two variants of this edition, distinguished by the presence or absence of a final unnumbered leaf. Benayahu notes the later, (as in the present volume), is in fact the scarcer of the two. This suggests that the reprint was not due to a loss or destruction of the former. Benayahu additionally suggests the year of publication of the present variant is spurious. For an analysis of typographical variances between the two variants see, M. Benayahu Ha’dephus Ha’ivri Be’cremona (1971) p. 233