Mekor Chaim [super-commentary to Abraham ibn Ezra on the Pentateuch].

ZARZA, SAMUEL

Meir ben Ephraim of Padua & Partner

Mantua

1559

FIRST EDITION. Owner’s signature on title page: Binyamin b. Hirsch Niederhofheim.

Vinograd, Mantua 63 (noting the existence of typographic variances); Adams S-241.

The author, a 14th-century Spanish philosopher resident of Valencia, recounts in the introduction of the present work the suffering of the Jews of Castille as a result of the civil-war between Dom Pedro, Duke of Coimbra and his brother Henry the Navigator. In Toledo alone, 10,000 Jews are said to have lost their lives. In his afterword, the author states he included an exposition of most of Moreh Nevuchim as few of his generation fully comprehended Maimonides’ thought process.