Bidspirit auction | CHEZEKIAH BEN MANOACH. Chizkuni [commentary

CHEZEKIAH BEN MANOACH. Chizkuni [commentary to the Chumash]. FIRST SEPARATE EDITION.  Title letters as well as initial Chapter words historiated. On f. 79r diagram of the twelve stones in the Kohen Gadol’s breast-plate. A rare complete copy (see below). Owners’ signatures in various Italian hands on title and first leaf, including scions of the scholarly Momigliano family. ff. 157, (1). Mispaginated, though complete. Upper corners of title and first leaves repaired affecting a few letters, dampstained and slightly foxed. Modern calf. 4to. Vinograd, Cremona 26; Benayahu, Cremona, no. 24 (illustrated p. 76). Cremona, Vicenzo Conti, 1559. Chezekiah ben Manoach (mid-13th century), apparently of France, was a Biblical commentator of the School of Rashi. Although this work was included in the Venice 1524 edition of the Chumash, this particular Cremona edition is the first separate edition. Meir Benayahu writes that most copies of Chizkuni are lacking ff. 155-156, which were removed by Church censorship (see his Hebrew Printing at Cremona (1971) p. 211), fortunately, our copy is entirely complete.