Mekor Chaim [super-commentary to Abraham ibn Ezra on 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 208
ZARZA, SAMUEL.

Mekor Chaim [super-commentary to Abraham ibn Ezra on the Pentateuch].

<<FIRST EDITION. Two copies:>> First edition first issue; and first edition second issue (see below). ff. 130. Stained, trace wormed, previous owner’s marks. Uniform modern calf. Folio.

Mantua:

Est: $1,200 - $1,800
PRICE REALIZED $2,750
The author, a 14th-century Spanish philosopher resident in Valencia, recounts in the introduction of the present work the suffering of the Jews of Castille as a result of the civil-war between Dom Pedro, Duke of Coimbra and his brother Henry the Navigator. In Toledo alone 10,000 Jews are said to have lost their lives. There are extant two issues of this first edition, with variants to the introduction. The present lot contains both issues. A blue-paper copy of Mekor Chaim in the possession of the Valmadonna Trust Library was exhibited in the Pierpont Morgan Library, see their catalogue: Hebraica from the Valmadonna Trust (1989) no. 37.