Yosef Lekach [commentary to the Book of Esther, with text]

ASCHKENAZI, ELIEZER BEN ELIJAH HA’ROPHÈ

Christopher Draconi

Cremona

1576

FIRST EDITION. Title within historiated woodcut architectural arch.

Vinograd, Cremona 46; Benayahu, Cremona 45; Adams B-1335

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 permiated with the contemporary rationalistic spirit of rabbinical scholarship. This edition of Yosef Lekach, was the last Hebrew book printed in Cremona, which for a little over twently years was a center of Jewish learning and printing, amidst the rigid censorship of the Inquisition. On the Hebrew press at Cremona see D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963) pp. 306-19. Bibliographers note two variants of this edition, distinguished by the presence or absence of a final unnumbered leaf. Benayahu notes the later, (as in the present volume), is in fact the scarcer of the two. This suggests that the reprint was not due to a loss or destruction of the former. Benayahu additionally suggests the year of publication of the present variant is spurious. For an analysis of typographical variances between the two variants see, M. Benayahu Ha’dephus Ha’ivri Be’cremona (1971) p. 233.