Toldoth Yitzchak [novellae to the Pentateuch].

AUCTION 74 | Thursday, November 09th, 2017 at 1:00

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

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Lot 120

KARO, ISAAC

Toldoth Yitzchak [novellae to the Pentateuch].

Second edition. Title within architectural arch. <<An uncommonly wide-margined copy.>> ff. (1), 81. Inheritance inscription on title-page, trace wormed along outer margins, ff.3-15 with repaired dampsoiling along inner margin with minimal loss. Later blind-tooled calf, lightly rubbed. Tall folio.

Mantua:

Est: $600 - $900

PRICE REALIZED $2,250

A concisely written commentary to the Chumash which includes literal, homiletical, kabbalistic and philosophical interpretations. The author, Isaac Karo (not to be confused with his celebrated nephew, R. Joseph Karo), was a native of Toledo and a man of broad culture. Several years before the Spanish Expulsion in 1492, Isaac Karo moved his yeshivah to Portugal, but following the the subsequent expulsion of the Jews from Portugal in 1497, he was forced to flee to Turkey. Karo entered the rabbinate in Constantinople, where Toldoth Yitzchak was first published in 1518. Its extreme popularity is evidenced by the fact that two editions were published in the same year of 1558 (Riva di Trento and Mantua). See EJ, V col. 193.