Tzeror ha-Mor [“Bundle of Myrrh”: Kabbalistic commentary to the Pentateuch]

Estimate: $500–$700
Hammer price: $1,100

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

author

SABA, ABRAHAM

printer

Isaac Prostitz

Place

Cracow

Publication

1595

Description

Title within architectural arch surmounted by vignette depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac. Final page contains medical prescriptions in Yiddish in a 17th-century hand

references

Vinograd, Cracow 184; Mehlman 675

summary

The author (b. Spain, c. 1440-1508), a disciple of Isaac de Leon, was exiled from his native Castile. No sooner did he find refuge in Oporto, Portugal, than King Emanuel ordered all Jews converted and all Hebrew books burned. Saba’s sons were forcibly baptized and his extensive library plundered. He escaped to Fez, Morocco, where he attempted to recommit from memory his own works that he was forced to abandon. See N.S. Libowitz, R. Avraham Saba u-Sepharav (1936)

ff. 165, (1). Previous owners signature on title (Yitzchak b. Azriel). Stainined and foxed. Modern elegant tan calf. Folio

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