Commentary to the Pentateuch.

AUCTION 26 | Monday, November 22nd, 2004 at 1:00

Exceptional Printed Books, Sixty-Five Hebrew Incunabula: The Elkan Nathan Adler-Wineman Family Collection

Back to Catalogue Download Catalogue

<Previous Lot

/65

Next Lot>

Lot 34

IBN EZRA, ABRAHAM.

Commentary to the Pentateuch.

FIRST EDITION. First word of each Book floriated. ff. 92 (of 98). Leaves laid to size with some loss of text. ff. 7-8, 11-12 shorter. On f.11r. few lines struck by censor. (These lines which occur in the commentary to Genesis 27:40, have not been restored to most modern Rabbinic Bibles to date). Modern diced calf. Folio Vinograd, Naples 6; Goff 1; Goldstein 52; Offenberg 56; Steinschneider, p. 680, no. 422, 1; Thes. A60; Wineman Cat. 34. Not in Cambridge University

Naples: Joseph ben Jacob Aschkenazi Gunzenhauser & Son 1488

Est: $20,000 - $30,000

PRICE REALIZED $30,000

According to the colophon, the editing was done by “Moses ben Shem Tov of the ibn Chabib Family, citizens of the Holy Congregation of Lisbon, who now reside in this city of Napoli.” It would be difficult to find a medieval sage as peripatetic as Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164). A native of Tudela, Spain, he lived at different times in North Africa, Italy, France, and England. Despite the maverick nature of his commentary - which does not accept rabbinic tradition uncritically - the author was revered throughout the ages.