Beith Midoth [ethics]

ANAV, YECHIEL BEN YEKUTHIEL.

S. Rikomin and Astruc de Toulon

[Constantinople]

[1511]

FIRST EDITION . The final leaf with the table of contents is bound here after the title. An attractive copy.

Yaari, Const. 13, Mehlman 976; St. Cat. Bodl. No. 5660,1.

An attractive copy of an important work. Anav’s Beith Midoth is renowned for its ethical insights and enumeration of the twenty-four steps necessary for character development. Such Rabbinic luminaries as R. Ya’akov Emden highly regarded the work - evident from the fact that he included entire chapters of it in his own work, Migdal Oz. The work was particularly venerated by the adherents of the Mussar movement of Novardok and it has been republished many times to this very day. It should be noted that this editio princeps contains textual variants from later editions. It also contains an introduction and a number of poems by the editor, Joseph Bibas, which were similarly not republished in later editions. In subsequent editions, the name of of the work was altered to Ma’aloth HaMidoth. On the title-page of this copy, above the word “Beith” a previous owner has written “Ma’aloth.” See S.H. Kook, Iyunim U’Mechkarim, Vol. II, pp. 268-6