Likutei Shik’chah U’peah [Kabbalistic commentary to Aggadic portions of the Talmud]

ALMALECH, ABRAHAM

Abraham ibn Usque

Ferrara

1556

FIRST EDITION. Title set within woodcut architectural arch with the printer’s device of an armillary sphere resting on a scroll with a verse from Psalm 130:5 (Yaari, 22)

Vinograd, Ferrara 41; Mehlman 1049; not in Adams

This compedium of kabbalistic writings includes the (non-attributed) commentary of Spanish medieval kabbalist Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona on selected aggadic portions; Joseph ben Chaim's commentary on the Ten Sefiroth; and Joseph Gikatilla's treatise on kabalistic subjects. It is unclear why Almalek concealed R. Ezra ben Solomon’s identity as the author of parts of the commentary in this work. For a detailed analysis of the fragments attributed to R. Ezra, see: I Tishby, Perush Ha’agadoth Le’rav Azriel (1945). p.12. Likely a Spanish exile, Abraham ben Judah Almalek lived in Pesaro, Italy, in the later half of the 15th-century. Little biographical information is known of him, although a few autobiographical notes appear in the preface to the present work.