Reishith Chochmah ["Beginning of Wisdom": ethics].

Estimate: $1,500–$2,000
Hammer price: $2,000

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

author

DE VIDAS, ELIJAH

printer

Giovanni di Gara

Place

Venice

Publication

1593

Description

Second edition. On title, printer's device of three crowns (Yaari, Hebrew Printers' Marks 18). Section headings within engraved vignettes. Last page with Hebrew manuscript in an Italian hand featuring a meditative prayer composed by Nachmanides to be recited for husband and wife prior to sexual relations, along with a related Kabbalistic incantation.

references

Vinograd, Venice 788.

summary

Elijah de Vidas (1518–87) was a disciple of R. Moses Cordovero, doyen of the Kabbalists in Safed. Despite its mystical overtones, Reishith Chochmah has become an important classic of ethical/pietistic literature. The work focuses upon the moral aspects of Jewish life, linking the motifs of Aggadic and Mussar literature with that of Kabbalah, thus broadly disseminating mystical ideas.

ff. 391, (blank, 31, index). Signatures removed from title, stained in places. Bound in Valmadonna-custom mahogany calf. Thick 4to.

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