Bidspirit auction | Nachalat Avot by Rabbi Yitzchak

Nachalat Avot by Rabbi Yitzchak Abarbanel – Commentary on Pirkei Avot – Constantinople, 1505 – First Edition, Printed in His Lifetime - Nachalat Avot, commentary on Pirkei Avot (with the text of Pirkei Avot), by R. Yitzchak Abarbanel. Constantinople: David and Shmuel ibn Nachmias and Yitzchak Kaspota, 1505. First edition. Printed without title page. The recto of leaf 1 is blank, while the verso features poems in praise of the book, set in a decorative woodcut border with animal and vegetal motifs. The poems were authored by R. Yehudah Abarbanel, the author's son. Rosh Amanah and Zevach Pesach by R. Yitzchak Abarbanel were originally printed together with this book. The books were bound together, and share a single colophon. This volume comprises Nachalat Avot only (without shared colophon). R. Yitzchak Abarbanel (1437-1508), prominent Torah scholar and renowned statesman, foremost leader of Spanish Jewry in the time of the Expulsion. He is noted for his commentary to Torah and Neviim. Following the Spanish Expulsion, he settled in Naples, Italy, where he completed the present work in 1496. He concludes the work on the last leaf: ”This commentary was completed in Monopoli, in the Apulia region of the Kingdom of Naples, where we settled following the fearful expulsion of Spanish Jewry, and this kingdom, which at first received us pleasantly, turned into an enemy… [1496]”. This first edition was printed in his lifetime, while he was in Venice, where he spent his final years. Ownership inscriptions on first leaf with illustrated frame: ”I, David son of R. Avraham Alpulietti”; ”Belongs to me, Shlomo Chucrel son of R. Chananiah Chucrel” (perhaps R. Shlomo Chucrel, a Torah scholar and dayan of Izmir, mechutan of R. Chaim Palachi). Glosses (trimmed) and handwritten notations on margins of many leaves. [115] leaves. Does not include leaf [116] – shared colophon of all three works. 26.5 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains, including dampstains and dark stains (singeing to upper edge of some leaves). Worming, tears and open tears, affecting text, repaired with paper filling (inner and outer margins of some leaves repaired with paper filling, bordering text). Long tears across length and width of leaf, repaired. Old binding, with leather spine and corners. Wear and defects to binding. One of the first Hebrew books printed in Constantinople. No. 3 in the list of Avraham Yaari, Hebrew Printing at Constantinople, Jerusalem, 1967. Provenance: Kestenbaum, New York, November 1998, Lot 3.