Maaloth HaMidoth.

ANAV, YECHIEL BEN YEKUTHIEL

V. Conti

Cremona

1556

Second Edition - first with this title. With marginal notes and manuscript corrections, seemingly a comparison of this Cremona edition with an earlier text.

Vinograd, Cremona 1; Benayahu, Cremona 2; Mehlman 977; St. Cat. Bodl. 5660: 2 (ed. maximae raritatis); not in Adams

THE FIRST BOOK PRINTED IN CREMONA ACCORDING TO VINOGRAD. Anav’s Maaloth HaMidoth is renowned for its ethical insights and enumeration of the twenty-four steps necessary for character development. Such Rabbinic luminaries as R. Yaakov Emden highly regarded the work - evident from the fact that he included entire chapters of it in his own Migdal Oz. Maaloth HaMidoth was particularly venerated by the adherents of the Mussar movement of Novardok and was republished many times. It should be noted that the when it first appeared, (Constantinople, 1511), the work was known as Beith Midoth. It has been noted there are many significant textual changes between the first and second editions. As Weiner's Koheleth Moshe notes (no. 1332), the author's introduction first appeared in the second edition and it seems apparent, each printer worked from a different manuscript. See S.H. Kook, Iyunim U'Mechkarim, Vol. II, pp. 268-9.