Ben HaMelech VehaNazir [“The Prince and the Hermit”]

IBN CHASDAI, ABRAHAM BEN SAMUEL

Joseph ben Jacob of Padua

Mantua

1557

Second Edition. Title within a woodcut architectural border. Opening letter of each chapter within a decorative woodcut vignette. Printer’s device on final leaf (Yaari, Hebrew Printers' Marks 19). Wide-margins.

Vinograd, Mantua 38; Mehlman 1272; not in Adams

Based on a popular early tale entitled “Barlaam and Josaphat” (in the Latin version), Ben HaMelech VehaNazir originated in India and was translated into many languages. The evolution of the tale from Hindi origins to the Hebrew form given to it by ibn Chasdai via a now lost Arabic version, is literary complex and the subject of much scholarly speculation. “The Hebrew version is attractively written and the prose narrative is interspersed with versified aphorisms” (EJ Vol. IV, col. 519). Because of the ethical and moral lessons included in the work, many of the later Ba’alei Mussar were fond of citing from it, an example being the late Mashgiach of the Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn, R. Tzvi Feldman.