Perush Masechta Avoth [commentary to the Chapters of the Fathers]

YA’AVETZ, JOSEPH

(The Author’s Grandsons, Solomon & Joseph Yaavetz)

Adrianople

1555

FIRST EDITION. The Tzvi Hirsch Berlin Copy, signed on title page, with autographed annotations on front free-endpaper

Vinograd, Adrianople 3; Mehlman 132; Adams

The author was among those expelled from Spain, and for his remaining years (d.1507) sought in his writings to find meaning in the catastrophe that had befallen Spanish Jewry. One of only four books printed at Adrianople, all uncommonly scarce. Solomon and Joseph Ya’avetz, the authors’ grandsons, set up a Hebrew press in Salonika in 1546. Fleeing Salonika for a short interval, they reconstituted their press in Adrianople, a town located on the Turkish-Greek frontier in 1554. A year later, Solomon went to Constantinople and Joseph returned to Salonika where he was active as a printer until 1570. Three philosophical treatises by Joseph Ya’avetz issued together, were sold by Kestenbaum & Company, 16th November 1999, lot 544