Biur al HaTorah [commentary to the Chumash].

Estimate: $1,500–$2,000
Hammer price: $3,200

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

author

SFORNO, OVADIAH.

printer

Giovanni Griffio

Place

Venice

Publication

1567

Description

FIRST EDITION. Large printer’s device on title. Initial word of each of the Five Books historiated. A clean, wide-margined copy.

references

Vinograd, Venice 538.

summary

Though written in a deceivingly simple style, Sforno’s commentary here contains great depth and offers original rationales for the various commandments (ta’amei hamitzvoth). True to the humanistic Italian-Jewish tradition, Obadiah Sforno excelled in several diverse fields: Philosophy, mathematics, and particularly medicine. It was he who taught the Hebrew language to the German philo-Semite Johannes Reuchlin (for which Sforno had been criticized by some).

ff. 92. Touch stained. Modern blind-tooled morocco. Sm. 4to.

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