RaMBa”N). Peirush HaTorah [commentary to the Pentateuch]

MOSES BEN NACHMAN (NACHMANIDES /

Joseph ben Jacob Aschkenazi Gunzenhauser]

[Naples

1490

Third edition. Printed in Rabbinic type, without nikud.

Vinograd, Naples 10; Goff Heb-88; Steinschneider, col. 1961, no. 6532-50; Thes. A-65; Offenberg 98; BMC XIII, p. 57.

See Treasures of the Valmadonna Trust Library - Otzroth Ya’akov, Incunables no. 39. The publication of three incunable editions of Nachmanides’ Commentary to the Pentateuch is an eloquent attestation to the immense popularity of the work. Only twenty-eight books were printed at the short-lived Hebrew press at Naples which operated from 1480-1500. No doubt the Naples craftsmen would have continued to produce fine books had not the Spanish Expulsion and the subsequent political changes for Jews throughout Europe silenced the activity of the Neapolitan Hebrew presses. See Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy, pp. 63-6. Another (complete) copy of this Nachmanides Naples edition in the possession of the Valmadonna Trust Library was exhibited in the Pierpont Morgan Library, see their catalogue: Hebraica from the Valmadonna Trust (1989) no. 13.