(MaHaRaSH"K). Birkath HaZevach [commentaries to the Talmudic Tractates of Kodashim]

KOIDONOVER, AARON SAMUEL.

David di Castro Tartas (“from f.133 and on...”)

Amsterdam

1669

FIRST edition Fine engraved title page depicting Biblical scenes

Vinograd Amsterdam 364; St. Cat. Bodl. 4360, 2

In the introduction to the present work, Koidonover recounts the hardships he suffered following the Swedish invasion of Poland. His library was plundered and he was forced to flee to Lublin - but not before two of his daughters were murdered. See Isaak Markon, ”Bemerkungen…über die Wilnaer Flüchtlinge im XVII. Jahrhundert,” in Studies in Jewish Bibliography in Memory of A.S. Freidus (1929) p. 375; see also JE Vol. VII, p. 414; EJ Vol. X, cols. 1153-54; Vol. XIV, cols. 1217-19. Birkath HaZevach was edited and published by the Author's son-in-law R. Nachum Katz, brother of R. Shabtai Cohen (Sha"ch). R. Aaron Samuel Koidonover and the Sha"ch served together as judges on the Beth Din of R. Moses Lima in Vilna. The title-page of the work indicates the careless workmanship of an earlier neglectful printer and his subsequent replacement by David di Castro Tartas. States the scarce final leaf: "I screamed (at the printers) and they refused to listen..." (see Fuks 431 for details of the entire incident)