Yosef Lekach [commentary to the Book of Esther]
AUCTION 47 |
Thursday, December 10th,
2009 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Graphic & Ceremonial Art
Lot 49
ASCHKENAZI, ELIEZER BEN ELIJAH HA’ROPHÈ
Yosef Lekach [commentary to the Book of Esther]
Cremona: Christopher Draconi 1576
Est: $600 - $900
PRICE REALIZED $750
Eliezer Aschkenazi held influential positions in widely scattered Jewish communites from Egypt, Cyprus and Italy to the major 16th-century centers in Poland, where he died. His Biblical exegesis is permeated with the contemporary rationalistic spirit. This edition of Yosef Lekach, was the last Hebrew book printed in Cremona, which for twenty years was a center of Jewish learning and printing, amidst the rigid censorship of the Inquisition. See D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963), pp. 306-319. Bibliographers note two variants of this edition, distinguished by an extra blank and a change of spelling of the name of the printer at the end of the introduction. For an analysis of typographical variants see M. Benayahu, HaDephus Ha’Ivri BeCremona (1971), pp. 232-33