Perush Nevi’im Rishonim [commentary to Former Prophets]. With text of Bible.

AUCTION 44 | Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Graphic & Ceremonial Art

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Lot 2

ABRABANEL, DON ISAAC.

Perush Nevi’im Rishonim [commentary to Former Prophets]. With text of Bible.

FIRST EDITION. Printed without a title page (as per Mehlman, although JNUL records a handful of copies contain a half-title). Four-piece white-on-black woodcut border of Renaissance ornament on additional title (cf. Haberman, Sha’arei Sepharim Ivri’im, pl.17). Ornament recurs on final page. Letters of opening words within white-on-black decorative vignettes. Text of Bible in square Hebrew characters provided with nikud. Commentary of Abrabanel in Rabbinic cursive script. On additional title, Hebrew signature of former owner, "Meir Luzzatti," and Hebrew inscription in Italki script: "I Meir Luzzatti gave this book as a complete gift to the dear and exalted…Luzzatti, may his Rock protect him." Extensive Hebrew marginalia in an old Italki hand in beginning of the Book of Samuel. On penultimate page, three inscriptions of Church censors, including that of Bonifort Asinari in Hebrew. Top line in Latin: "Visto et correto p[er] me Boniforte del Asinari"; second line in Hebrew: "Ani Bonifort Asinari." (See Popper, Pl.V, no. 4.) Followed by: "Fr[ater] Hier[onymu]s Caralus Inq[isito]r …" (Popper, Pl. V, no. 5). And finally, on last line: "Dominico Irosolimitano, 1598" (Popper, Pl. III, no. 1). ff. (306). Final page remargined probably from another copy, few paper repairs, occasional stains. Several passages struck by Church censor. Light stains. Modern calf. Folio Vinograd, Pesaro 29; Mehlman 64; not in Adams

Pesaro: Gershom Soncino 1511

Est: $7,000 - $9,000

PRICE REALIZED $10,000

Abrabanel endeavors to explain the general content of the Bible, its principles, views and moral teachings more than the actual meaning of the words and passages. Primarily a philosophical, theological, ethical and to some extent historical commentary, his method as an exegete is entirely novel, prefacing each section of each book with a number of questions and then interpreting that section in such a manner as to gradually resolve them. He divided each book in his own way, according to the individual logical subjects treated, without attention to the traditional division. Abrabanel was practically the first Jewish commentator to devote attention to the question of Biblical chronology, primarily that of the period of the Judges until the division of the Kingdom, and as such, contributed greatly to attempted solutions by subsequent commentators both Jewish and Christian. The preface includes Abrabanel’s account of his life in Spain and the Expulsion; he also refers to his descent from the House of David. See M. Waxman, A History of Jewish Literature, Vol. II, pp. 46-51. Gershom Soncino was perhaps the most prolific printer of his time producing more than 100 Hebrew titles and as many non-Hebrew texts (under the name Hieronymus Soncino). His sojourn in the Adriatic town of Pesaro was no doubt encouraged by the marriage and removal of his erstwhile patroness, Ginevera Sforza to that town. Pesaro became an asylum for scholars and artists under the rule of the Sforza family. Indeed, Gershom printed at Pesaro without cessation from 1507 to 1515 and again in 1517, 1519 and 1520. According to Marx: “The years 1509-1511, during which the production of books in Venice as a result of the War of the League of Combray, was at a complete standstill, were among Gershom’s best years as far as the quantity of books produced is concerned.” Regarding Soncino’s years on the Adriatic coast in Pesaro, see D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963), pp. 104-115 and M. Marx, "Gershom Soncino’s Wanderyears in Italy," HUCA, Vol. XI (1936), pp. 459-65.