SONG OF SONGS WITH COMMENTARY OF RABBI ABRAHAM HA-LEVI TAMAKH, SABBIONETA: TOBIAS FOA, 1558
Auction Closed
November 20, 08:47 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
SONG OF SONGS WITH COMMENTARY OF RABBI ABRAHAM HA-LEVI TAMAKH, SABBIONETA: ℱTOBIAS FOA, 1558
63 of 64 folios (4 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.; 108 x 68 mm) (collation: i-vii8, viii7) on paper. Modern foliation in pencil in upper-outer corner of🗹 recto; incipit within decorative vignette on f. 2v. Lacking f. 64; slight scattered staining; intermittent repairs in lower-outer corners; episodic minor worming in margins, sometimes repaired; stray marks on several pages; repairs in upper edges of ff. [1]-2, 56, 63, in outer edge of f. 57, and in gutter at foot of ff. 24-31; individual words and phrases expurgated intermittently throughout. Modern blind-tooled calf, slightly worn at edges; spine in four compartments with raised bands; title and date lettered in gilt on upper board; modern paper flyleaves and pastedowns.
The first edition of a rare biblical commentary.
Rabbi Abraham ben Isaac ha-Levi Tamakh (d. 1393), a student of Rabbi Nissim ben Reuben Gerondi (ca. 1310-ca. 1375; see lot 224) and colleague of Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet (1326-1408) and Profiat Duran (d. ca. 1414), headed a yeshiva in Gerona and was a leader of the local Jewish community. He is known mainly for the present commentary on the Song of Songs, which is heavily influenced by Maimonides’ Moreh nevukhim (see lot 22). The editor of the volume, Rabbi Raphael Joseph ben Johanan Treves of Ferrara, added extracts from the Sephardic kabbalist and philosopher Rabbi Joshua Ibn Shuaib’s (first half of the fourteenth century) homily on the Song of Songs (first edition: Constantinople, 1523). Treves notes in his introduction that he printed the book in small format so that it could be appended to the miniature Pentateuch-cum-Five Scrolls and haftarot published at Foa’s pr💫ess the previous yearඣ (see lot 28). Tamakh’s commentary was subsequently reprinted only once, in Prague in 1611.
Provenance
Isaac Dayyan (ff. [1r], 4v, 7r, 63v)
Literature
Shraga Abramson, Introduction to Joshua Ibn Shuaib, Derashot al ha-torah le-r. yehoshua ibn shu‘aib (Jerusalem: Makor, 1969), 41-43.
Abraham ha-Levi Tamakh, Commentary on the Song of Songs, ed. Leon A. Feldman (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1970).
Vinograd, Sabbioneta 48
Avraham Yaari, “Ha-madpisim benei foa,” in Mehkerei sefer: perakim be-toledot ha-sefer ha-ivri (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1958), 323-419, at pp. 365 (no.𒁏 24).