Likutei Shik’chah U’peah [“Gleanings” - kabbalistic commentary on aggadic portions of the Talmud]

ELIMELECH, ABRAHAM BEN JUDAH (ALMALEK/ELMALEH)

Abraham ibn Usque

Ferrara

1556

FIRST EDITION. Title set within woodcut architectural arch with the printer’s device of an armillary sphere resting on a scroll with a verse from Psalm 130:5 (Yaari no. 22; illustrated EJ, XIII col.1094 no. 7)

Vinograd, Ferrara 41; Mehlman 1049; not in Adams

Abraham ben Judah Almalek lived in Pesaro, Italy in the later half of the fifteenth century and was probably a Spanish exile. Little biographical information is known, though he provides a few autobiographical details in the preface to the present work. This compedium of kabbalistic writings includes the (non-attributed) commentary of Spanish medieval kabbalist Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona on selected aggadic portions; Joseph ben Chaim's commentary on the Ten Sefiroth; and Joseph Gikiatilla's treatise on kabalistic subjects. It is unclear why Almalek concealed R. Ezra ben Solomon’s identity as the author of parts of the commentary in this work. For a detailed analysis of the fragments attributed to R. Ezra, see: I Tishby, Perush Ha’agadoth Le’rav Azriel (1945). p.12.