Pirkei Avoth [Ethics of the Fathers]. With commentary by Moses Maimonides, including Shemonah Perakim

(TALMUD).

Marco Antonio Giustiniani

Venice

1546

Printer’s mark on title (see Yaari, Hebrew Printers’ Marks 16). Scattered scholarly Hebrew marginalia. On final blank, Yemenite manuscript entitled “Ha-Machbereth ha-Shtayim ve-Arba’im” [Maqama XLII], which begins “Amar Mordechai ha-Tzidoni: Nas’ati mi-No Amon el Har Chermon…” [Said Mordecai the Sidonite: I traveled from Alexandria to Mount Hermon…]. (See below)

Vinograd, Venice 277; Mehlman 103

Giustiniani Mishnah Containing Yemenite Fragment of Early Work by Judah Alharizi Our fragment commences with a rhyme found incidentally in Alharizi’s Tachkemoni, Gate Twenty: “…until he came to No-Amon…thence went on to Mount Hermon.” See Judah Alharizi, The Book of Tahkemoni, (D.S. Segal ed. 2001), p. 199. This gives reason to believe that our manuscript may contain a passage from an earlier work by the same author, Mahberoth Ithi’el, of which only a single fragmentary manuscript survives. Pococke Ms. 50 at the Bodleian Library contains only a fraction of the 50 maqamat of Al-Hariri: II-XXVI complete, the beginning of Maqama I and a portion of Maqama XXVII. Both the earlier Mahberoth Ithi’el and the later Tahkemoni were Hebrew reworkings by the Andalusian poet Judah Alharizi (1165-1225) of the Arabic maqamat [rhymed prose] of Al-Hariri of Basra (c.1054-1112). See Judah Alharizi, Machberoth Ithi’el, (T. Chenery ed. 1872); Al-Hariri, Mahberot Iti’el be-tirgum Rabbi Yehudah Alharizi, (Y. Perets ed 1951). - The problem with this identification is that each Machbereth in the Machberoth Ithi’el commences with the formula “Ne’um HaGever Ithi’el" while our Machbereth commences “Amar Mordechai HaTzidoni." I WAS SUBSEQUENTLY ABLE TO IDENTIFY THIS MAQAMA AS A FRAGMENT FROM SEPHER HA-MUSAR BY THE YEMENITE ZACHARIA AL-DAHRI (EDITED BY YEHUDA RATZABY, JERUSALEM, BEN-ZVI INSTITUTE, 1965). THE HERO OF THE BOOK IS MORDECAI THE SIDONITE. SEE REUBEN AHRONI, "JEWISH-MUSLIM RELIGIOUS POLEMICS IN YEMEN," HUCA, VOL. LII (1981), PP. 323-4