Chizkuni [commentary to the Pentateuch]

Chezekiah ben Manoach

Vicenzo Conti

Cremona

1559

FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. Title as well as initial letters throughout the book richly historiated. . On f. 79r. diagram of the twelve stones in the High Priest’s breastplate. On ff. 2r.-v., 3r., and final leaf, owner’s signature: “Saul Doueck Hakohen.” On f.157v., censor’s signature from 1679. On verso of final leaf, censor’s signature from 1597.

Vinograd, Cremona 26; Benayahu, Cremona, no. 24 (facsimile of colophon on final page in Benyahu, p. 76).

Chezekiah ben Manoach (mid-13th century), apparently of France, was a Biblical commentator of the School of Rashi. Although his work Chizkuni was earlier included in the Venice 1524 edition of the Pentateuch, it was first printed separately in Cremona in 1559. See EJ, Vol. VIII, cols. 459-60 (illustrated). Meir Benayahu writes that most copies of Chizkuni are lacking ff. 155-156, which were removed by Church censorship; see his Hebrew Printing at Cremona (Jerusalem, 1971), p. 211. Fortunately, our copy is entirely complete. In the early 20th century, the pre-eminent kabbalist of Eretz Israel was R. Saul Hakohen Doueck (originally from Aleppo, Syria). But it is more likely that this copy belonged to an earlier Saul Hakohen Doueck, the wealthy brother of the president of the Jewish community of Aleppo, and author of Emeth me’Eretz (Jerusalem, 1910). The latter died in Aleppo in 1874. See EJ, Vol. VI, col. 325.