Bidspirit auction | Pesikta Rabbati. Prague, 1654 –

Pesikta Rabbati. Prague, 1654 – First Edition. - Sefer Pesikta Rabbati (“The Great Pesikta”), a Midrashic work dated by modern scholarship to the Geonic period. Its title, Pesikta Rabbati, serves to distinguish it from Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, an earlier Midrash generally dated to approximately the 5th century CE. First Edition. [Prague, printed by Isaac Katz, 1654]. A partially trimmed ownership inscription appears on the first leaf: “I deposited this sefer for safekeeping with the benefactor [---], dayan of Kraków, I, the humble Abraham Zig[--] Minitz.” 74 Leaves. Lacking the title page. 18 cm. For discussion of the date of this edition and of Pesikta Rabbati, see: M. Sanders, Pesikta Rabbati, First Edition, Areshet, vol. 3 (1961), pp. 99–101; I. L. Zunz, Ha-Drashot BeYisrael, ed. H. Albeck, Jerusalem, 1947, pp. 28–29, 117–121, 376. This foundational Midrashic work is cited by leading medieval authorities, including Rabbi אלעזר מגרמייזא (the Rokeach) Eleazar of Worms, Rabbi מרדכי בן הלל (the Mordechai). The work was printed here for the first time by Rabbi Isaac ben Chaim Katz. For reasons that remain unknown, the printers deliberately omitted both the place and year of publication. Scholars therefore identify the edition as having been printed in Prague around 1653–1654. It is likely for the same reason why most surviving copies of this edition are missing their title pages.