Sepher Tziyoni [Kabbalistic homilies to the Pentateuch, with poems]

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

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

Back to Catalogue Download Catalogue

<Previous Lot

/150

Next Lot>

Lot 148

TZIYONI, MENACHEM OF SPEYER

Sepher Tziyoni [Kabbalistic homilies to the Pentateuch, with poems]

Second edition. Title and chapter headings with woodblock historiated initials. On title, censor’s signature of “17 August 1590.” (See Wm. Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books, Pl. V, No. 5.) On f.82r. a Hebrew marginalium pertaining to the “sod shti va-erev” [secret of the cross] the Author alludes to at beg. Parshath Korach ff.110. Mispaginated (as usual) though complete. On title previous owner’s inscriptions. Upper left hand corner of title taped, laid to size. Tears to ff. 93-100 repaired, light stains. 19th-century library binding. Sm. 4to Vinograd, Cremona 31; Benayahu, Cremona 27 and pp.80-3 (illustrated); not in Adams

Cremona: Vicenzo Conti 1560

Est: $600 - $900

PRICE REALIZED $1,000

Upon issue, the entire first edition of one thousand copies of the Tziyoni issued in 1559 was seized and destroyed by the Dominican Friars of Cremona, zealously seeking to enforce Pope Paul IV’s Index of that year. Despite Pope Paul IV’s Bull “In Coena Dominis,” a bare handful of copies survived. See D. Amram, the Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963), pp. 310-315. Concerning the typographical variants between the first and second editions, see M. Benayahu, Ha-Dephus ha-Ivri bi-Cremona (1971), pp.79-83 (illustrated). For information on the author, his descendants and his kabbalistic method, see Sh. Weiss, Tsefunei Tziyoni (1985), Introduction; and B. Huss, Demonology and Magic in the Writings of R. Menahem Ziyyoni, in: Kabbalah, Vol. X (2004), pp. 55-72