Commentary to the Pentateuch. Edited by Solomon Tzarphathi ben Peretz

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

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

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Lot 42

BACHIA BEN ASHER BEN HLAVA.

Commentary to the Pentateuch. Edited by Solomon Tzarphathi ben Peretz

Second Edition. Double columns. Divisional titles. Divisional titles of Bereshith, Shemoth and Vayikra surrounded by a richly historiated border complete with peacock; hunters, hounds and stags. (For a discussion of this famous “Peacock Border,” see summary below.) Divisional titles for Bamidbar and Devarim less elaborate (not full page). Our first page, “Kevod Chachamim etc.” is missing in all three JTSA copies. On f.44r. text added in hand. Several marginalia: f.44r.; in bottom margin of ff.47v-48r a citation from Tzeror HaMor; on f.257v citation from Bereshith Rabbah. Throughout the book Biblical references provided in margins. On p. 256v a single word has been scratched from the left column, next to last line and replaced in margin as “la-avod.” In the unscratched JTSA copy the original reads incorrectly “li-be'od!” (The reference is to worship of idolatry.) Several passages perceived as anti-Christian have been censored (f.78v). On blank between Bereshith and Shemoth, inscription of former owner, “Dayan Gershon Levi,” and another inscription in Judeo-Español: “Este libro es de Isaac Leon.” On f.129v bottom, few lines of Targum from another book tipped in. See EJ, Vol. IV, col. 104 (facsimile of engraved border of title to Exodus) ff.287. Several leaves remargined or laid to size with some loss, stained in places, few leaves made-up from another copy. Divisional title of Shemoth torn. f.125 wormhole resulting in loss of part of word (bi-yerakoth) on f.126v. Modern calf. Folio Vinograd, Naples 21; Goff 6; Goldstein 75; Offenberg 8; Steinschneider, p. 777, no. 4525, 1; Thes. A74; Wineman Cat. 42. Not in Cambridge University

Naples: Azriel ben Joseph Aschkenazi Gunzenhauser 1492

Est: $50,000 - $70,000

PRICE REALIZED $50,000

COMPLETE COPY OF RABBEINU BACHIA. Second incunable edition. Of the first edition, printed somewhere in the Iberian peninsula just a few months earlier, only fragments are extant, found in Cincinnati (HUC), New York (JTSA) and Jerusalem (Schocken). See Offenberg no. 7. The rich border of this Naples edition of Bachya’s Commentary has become the focus of much bibliographic attention. It has been suggested that Gunzenhauser’s brother-in-law, Moses b. Isaac, was the engraver who designed the decorative woodcut. Confronted with the fact that the identical “Peacock Border” figures on fol. 2a of the Aquila Volante ascribed to Leonardo Aretino, printed by Adolfo de’ Cantoni at Naples on 27 June 1492, just six days before the Bachia, Cecil Roth was forced to conclude either that a friendly Christian printer allowed Gunzenhauser use of the border, or that Gunzenhauser’s talented brother-in-law designed the border for both the Aquila and the Bachia. The discussion becomes very technical, pivoting on whether the broader border is on the inside or the outside, and whether the border appears on a recto or verso side of a leaf. See A. Marx, Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. XI (1920-1) p.113; idem, Studies in Jewish History and Booklore (1944) 289-291; J. Bloch, Hebrew Printing in Naples in: Hebrew Printing and Bibliography (1976) p. 131; and C. Roth, The Border of the Naples Bible of 1491-2 in: C. Roth, Studies in Books and Booklore (1972) pp. 71-9. The 13th-century exegete Rabbeinu Bachia ben Asher of Saragossa was a disciple of R. Solomon ben Adret. His commentary to the Pentateuch is infused with the spirit of Kabbalah. In recent years Prof. Ephraim Gottlieb contributed much to the understanding of Rabbeinu Bachia’s mystical system. See E. Gottlieb, The Kabbalah in the Writings of R. Bahya ben Asher ibn Halawa (1970)