Auction 43 Catalogue - Kestenbaum & Company

Lot 38
38 ABRAHAM IBN EZRA. Peirush ha-Torah [Commentary to the Pentateuch]. FIRST EDITION. First word of each book fl oriated. Headers in square
characters, text in rabbinic script. Printed in double columns. The paper exhibits watermark of hand with shirt-cuff and fi ngers pointing to a
star-shaped blossom. Wide margins. Some underlining and Latin marginalia in sepia ink. The Sassoon Copy. Despite minimal faults noted below -
AN ASTOUNDINGLY CLEAN AND WIDE-MARGINED COPY. ff. 98. Expert repairs to fi rst three leaves, few miniscule stains. Finely bound by Joseph Gradenwitz, London
- modern blind-tooled calf; spine in compartments. Folio. [Vinograd, Naples 6; Goff 1; Goldstein 52; Offenberg 56; St. Cat. Bodl. p. 680, no. 4221-1; Thes. A60;
Wineman Cat. 34. Not in Cambridge University].
Naples, Joseph ben Jacob Aschkenazi Gunzenhauser & Son: 1488. $200,000-300,000
❧ THE INTERNAL CONDITION OF THIS INCUNABLE MAY COMFORTABLY BE STATED AS BEING ONE OF THE VERY FINEST TO HAVE APPEARED AT AUCTION FOR
A GREAT MANY DECADES.
It would be diffi cult to fi nd a medieval sage as peripatetic as Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164). A native of Tudela, Spain, he lived at different
times in North Africa, Italy, France, and England. Despite the maverick nature of his commentary - which does not accept rabbinic tradition
uncritically - the author was revered throughout the ages. Ibn Ezra belonged to a school of Spanish pashtanim, who sought - by heavy reliance
on Hebrew grammar and Semitic linguistic analysis - to arrive at the simple meaning of the Bible. In this respect, they differed greatly from
the French school of Rashi and the Tosaphists, whose commentaries are informed by the midrashim of Rabbinic lore, and even from later
Spanish exegetes, such as Nachmanides, whose commentary makes ample use of the Kabbalah or Jewish mysticism. In his purism, or perhaps
reductionism, Ibn Ezra came into contact with the Karaite commentators, such as Japheth ben Ali, et al, who rejected outright the Rabbinic
tradition. Nonetheless, time and time again Ibn Ezra concludes a discussion by commenting to the effect “that we rely on our tradition.” Thus,
after all of his forays into the uncharted world of peshat, ultimately, Ibn Ezra remains faithful to traditional Halacha.
The Gunzenhausers, pioneers in Hebrew printing, arrived in Naples from Gunzenhausen in Southern Germany. In Naples they
established a press, assembled a talented team of typsetters and proof-readers, and between the years 1487-1492 produced in sum twelve
books. After the death of Joseph Gunzenhauser in 1490, the press continued under his wife and son Azriel.
From the library of the late Rabbi Y. Stern, London.
[SEE ILLUSTRATION ABOVE, FACING PAGE AND FRONTISPIECE]
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