Auction 74 · Lot 20

Bi’ur al HaTorah [commentary to the Pentateuch].

Estimate: $5,000–$7,000
Hammer price: $5,000

Historical auction record. Hammer prices exclude buyer’s premium and taxes.

author

BACHIAH BEN ASHER.

printer

Gershom Soncino

Place

Pesaro

Publication

1514

Description

Individual letters of opening word of each Book historiated, initial page of Genesis within full elegant woodcut border, printed throughout in two columns. Few marginal notes.

references

Vinograd, Pesaro 32.

summary

R. Bachiah ben Asher ibn Halawa (1255-1340) was one of the most eminent Iberian exegetical writers to the Bible. His work derives heavily from unsourced Kabbalistic material, as well as from the writings of Nachmanides. Bachiah saw himself as a spiritual heir to the latter, as he was taught by Nachmanides’ student, R. Solomon ben Adret (RaSHB”A).Although this volume underwent the censor, an 18th-century hand has provided the effaced text (ff. 26a, 63b, et al). In any event, the censor’s ink has now worn out to the point that the words beneath are easily visible. Especially detested by the censor were descriptions of Divine retribution against Israel’s oppressors, as well as negative references to Edom (i.e. Rome), the symbol of Christian Europe.

ff. (274). A made-up copy. Opening leaf laid to size with two words supplied in facsimile, following four leaves and final ten leaves remargined, stained in places, few paper repairs, passages censored in places. Modern blind-tooled calf. Folio.

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