(MIDRASH).
AUCTION 34 |
Tuesday, September 12th,
2006 at 1:00
Exemplary Hebrew Books: The Library of Joseph Gradenwitz, Esq.
Lot 113
(MIDRASH).
Venice: Daniel Bomberg 1546
Est: $2,500 - $3,000
PRICE REALIZED $5,500
Unpublished Commentary in Marginal Note by Samuel Portaleone.
Samuel Sha’ar-Aryeh [Portaleone] was a member of a distinguished family of Mantuan physicians. Israel Abrahams published Samuel Portaleone’s “Proposed Restrictions on Games of Chance.” Abrahams notes that the British Museum possesses an autograph manuscript of Portaleone’s sermons on the Pentateuch. Simonsohn records a eulogy by R. Samuel Portaleone for R. Hananiah Finzi in Mantua in 1630.
Samuel’s autograph comments to the final verses of Psalm 119, state that it is only by adherence to the observance of the precepts and the diligent study of the Torah will the Jewish people be protected from becoming “as lost sheep” during their lengthy Exile (Galuth).
See I. Abrahams, JQR (old series), Vol. V (1893), pp. 505-515; Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua (1977), pp. 535, 709; C. Roth, The History of the Jews of Italy (1946), pp. 202-3