Isaiah and Jeremiah. With commentary of David Kimchi (Rada”k)

(BIBLE)

Eliezer (Toledano)

Lisbon

1492

Text in square type with vocalization (nikud) and cantillation (te'amim); commentary of Rada”k in semi-cursive Sephardi (Rash”i) type

Vinograd, Lisbon 7; Goff 25; Goldstein 95; Offenberg 32; Steinschneider, p. 3, no. 13; Thesaurus B21; Wineman Cat. 60

FIRST IBERIAN EDITION OF BOOKS OF ISAIAH AND JEREMIAH. It appears Isaiah and Jeremiah was intended as a companion volume to the magificent Pentateuch issued by Rabbi Eliezer Toledano the previous year of 1491 (see Lot 59). The surname “Toledano” is never mentioned in any of the books from the Lisbon press, only the first name “Eliezer.” As his name would indicate, Rabbi Eliezer was a native of Toledo, who after relocating to Lisbon, founded there a Hebrew press that has been classed as “typographically, the best equipped” of all the Hebrew printing presses that flourished in the Iberian peninsula. It is known that Eliezer was assisted in his work by Don Judah Leon Gedaliah, who eventually took the types to Constantinople. See J. Bloch, Early Hebrew Printing in Spain and Portugal in: C. Berlin, Hebrew Printing and Bibliography (1976) pp. 34-37. The Wineman Copy compares most favorably with that of JNUL, which is but a fragment of 12 leaves. See Peretz Tishby, The Hebrew Incunabula in Israel, Kiryat Sefer 59:4 (1984), p. 956, no. 90