Tachkemoni.

AUCTION 54 | Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts Autograph Letters, Graphic & Ceremonial Art

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Lot 5
AL’HARIZI, JUDAH.

Tachkemoni.

Second edition. Few marginal notes. ff. 76, (2). Expert paper repairs, few stains. Modern elegantly tooled calf. 4to. Vinograd, Const. 270; Yaari, Const. 196; Mehlman 1273.

Constantinople: Solomon and Joseph Yaabetz 1578

Est: $3,000 - $4,000
PRICE REALIZED $3,000
Spanish born Judah ben Solomon Al’Harizi (1170-1235) was a preeminent poet and translator from Arabic into Hebrew, especially the works by Maimonides. Sepher Tachkemoni is Al’Harizi’s major work of poetry, completed in 1220, during the course of the poet’s extensive travels through the Near East. He includes here a travelogue from Spain through Provence to Egypt, Syria, and Babylonia - complimenting the travels of Benjamin of Tudela fifty years earlier. He writes of personalities encountered in the various cities along the way: Rabbis Meir Halevi (RaMaH) Abulafia of Toledo; Sheshet of Barcelona, Kalonymus ha-Nasi of Beaucaire, Abraham Maimonides of Cairo and the princes of Narbonne. See Judith Dishon, “Medieval Panorama in the Book of Tahkemoni,” PAAJR, Vol. LVI (1990), pp. 11-27.