Chizkuni [commentary to the Pentateuch]

Chezekiah ben Manoach

Vicenzo Conti

Cremona

1559

FIRST SEPARATE EDITION. Title letters as well as initial Chapter words historiated, f. 79r diagram of the twelve stones in the High Priest’s breast-plate. Owner’s signature in an Aschkenazic hand on title. Censor’s signatures on title and last page, few words censored (presently legible). Scattered marginalia in an Italian hand. A well-margined copy

Vinograd, Cremona 26; Benayahu, Cremona, no. 24 (illustrated p.76)

Chezekiah ben Manoach (mid-13th century), apparently of France, was a Biblical commentator of the School of Rash”i. Although his work Chizkuni was earlier included in the Venice 1524 edition of the Pentateuch, this Cremona edition is the first seperate edition. 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