Derashoth ha-Torah [sermons to the Pentateuch]

AUCTION 34 | Tuesday, September 12th, 2006 at 1:00

Exemplary Hebrew Books: The Library of Joseph Gradenwitz, Esq.

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Lot 72

IBN SHEM TOV, SHEM TOV BEN JOSEPH

Derashoth ha-Torah [sermons to the Pentateuch]

Third edition. Title within architectural arch. Initial word of each Book within decorative surround. Printed in double columns ff. 81. Leaves 11-12 mispaginated and their order reversed. ff.70-71 torn with some loss of text. Browned and stained. Contemporary calf, rubbed. Folio Vinograd, Padua 2; not in Adams

Padua: Lorenzo Pasquato 1567

Est: $500 - $700

PRICE REALIZED $800

Though a prolific author of philosophic works, only two of the literary creations of Shem Tov (Spain, 15th century) were published - the present Derashoth ha-Torah and the commentary to Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed (which continues to this day to be reprinted in standard editions of the Guide). See EJ, Vol VII, col. 1199. Shem Tov’s Derashoth ha-Torah cites abundantly from his predecessors - Sa’adyah, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Nachmanides, Gersonides - with constant referal to the Guide (“Ha-Moreh”). Appended are several sermons on the theme of Repentance (Derash li-Teshuvah). Despite the ancient presence of the University - one of the great institutions of learning in Europe - only two Hebrew books were printed in Padua throughout the 16th-century. See Amram, pp. 338-41 and 387-88