Levush Ha’Orah [elucidations and novellea to Rashi’s commentary on the Chumash].

JAFFE, MORDECHAI.

Abraham ben Moses Sedil

Prague

1603

FIRST EDITION. Printer’s device on verso of title. Map Of The Land Of Israel on f. 84v. Text-illustration of a palm of a hand on f.(5)v of the final gathering. With the rare supplement: U’Mordechai Yatza BeLevush Malchuth.”

Vinograd, Prague 123.

With a important woodcut map of the Land of Israel and surrounding nations, charting the travels of the Children of Israel. Decorative and clearly defined, the map depicts ships riding the seas with cities delineated by towers adorned with flags - an altogether sophisticated representation. The details of the map were entirely based on information derived from the Bible and its commentaries, for, as E. & G. Wajntraub point out in their “Hebrew Maps of the Holy Land” (1992) p. 41 “it was not possible to draw eye-witness reports, and all geographical data is based [only] on the geographical knowledge of the Bible.”