Likutei Shik’chah U’peah [“Gleanings” - Kabbalistic commentary to 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, 22). Signatures of previous owners on title.

Vinograd, Ferrara 41.

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 Gikatilla's treatise on enigmatic kabbalistic themes. It is unclear why Almalech 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 LeRav Azriel (1945). p.12. Likely a Spanish exile, Abraham ben Judah Almalech lived in Pesaro, Italy, in the later half of the 15th-century. Little biographical information is known of him, although a few autobiographical notes appear in the preface to the present work.