Jacob di Illescos. Imrei Noam [Kabbalistic and grammatical super-commentary to Rashi and ibn Ezra on the Pentateuch]

(LURIA, SOLOMON, MaharSHa”l).

Vicenzo Conti

Cremona

1566

Second edition. Possibly the personal copy of the Maharsha”L (see below). With signatures and inscriptions of former owners on the recto and verso of the title and f. 2a plus the stamp of the Beth Hamidrash of the Klaus in Altona, scholarly marginal notes in various hands (some extensive).

Vinograd, Cremona 37; Benayahu, Cremona 33.

The signature at the top of the title-page though faint and frayed reads “Shlomo ben le-A(doni) A(vi) M(oreinu) Har(av) R(eb) (Yechi)el…” On the verso of the title there is an inscription which ends with the words “Me-A(doni) A(vi)” or perhaps “Me-A(doni) Mori” Hagaon Maharsh(al). The marginal note on f. 47b ends with the abbreviation H’’Y ben Maharash which may be H(akatan) Y(echiel) the son of the Maharshal. The Maharshal’s father’s name was Yechiel and his older son who succeeded him in Lublin was also named Yechiel after his grandfather. There is a note in a different hand on f.43b signed Yoseph. The signatory, R. Solomon Luria (1510?-1574), was arguably the greatest Polish rabbi of his day - alongside his younger contemporary and relative, Moses Isserles - the Rem”a. The Maharshal is valued for his precise, critical corrections of text, and the clarity and order he brings to the erudite presentation of his novellae.