Hanikra Yelamdeinu [Midrashic homilies to the Pentateuch]. Attributed to Tanchuma bar Abba.

MIDRASH TANCHUMA.

Solomon ibn Mazel-Tov

Constantinople

1520-22

FIRST EDITION. Opening word within white-on-black woodcut decorative vignette.

Vinograd, Const. 123; Mehlman 177; Yaari, Const. 92.

There is some confusion among bibliographers regarding the collation of this work. Vinograd and Mehlman call for ff. 110, while Yaari called for ff. 108. On the basis of comparison with the copy at the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, the correct pagination is most definitely ff. 108. The source of the earlier confusion would seem to be the inclusion of a blank leaf between Shemoth and Vayikrah (present in this copy). There was a presumption made by an early bibliographer that the work contained a similar blank leaf between Bereshith and Shemoth and between Vayikrah and Devarim, which explains the two leaf discrepancy. However, the text of both Shemoth and Devarim begin mid-leaf, (see f. 25v. and f. 75v.) and so these blank leaves clearly never existed.