Sepher HaMusar

Estimate: $1,500–$2,000
Hammer price: $1,200

Historical auction record. Hammer prices exclude buyer’s premium and taxes.

author

KALATZ, JUDAH.

printer

Eliezer b. Gershom Soncino

Place

Constantinople

Publication

1536-37

Description

FIRST EDITION. Title within architectural arch. Previous owners' signatures and inscriptions on title and front flyleaf including Said ibn Salem Al-Amrani. A leaf inserted before the front flyleaf contains novellae in a 17th -18th century Ashkenazic hand pertaining to halachic ramifications of the relationship of the Biblical Judah and Tamar. The closing flyleaf contains two short responsa in a Sephardic hand

references

Vinograd Const. 159; Yaari Cont. 124; Mehlman 978; St. Cat. Bodl. 5693, 1 (ed. rara)

summary

AN ETHICAL WORK WITH both RATIONAL AND KABBALISTIC EXPOSITIONS concerning social and commercial halacha. The author was a mystic and moralist, who resided in Tlemcen, Algeria at the beginning of the 15th-century. Concerning the Kalatz Family, see S. Z. Havlin, LeToldoth Mishpachath Al-Calatz, in Kiryat Sepher, Vol. 49, (1974) pp. 643-56. Havlin cites S. Schechter and H. Enelow, who opine that portions of the Sepher HaMusar were “adapted” from Israel Alnaqua’s Menorath HaMaor

ff. 136 (of 140, Yaari's copy had four additional leaves before the title containing an additional introduction from the author's son Moshe). Portion of outer decorative margin of title repaired, scattered marginal notes, staining and browning, some marginal repairs. Ex-library. Later gilt tooled calf, rubbed. 4to

Enquire about this lot