Bidspirit auction | IBN GABIROL, SHLOMO. Mivchar HaPeninim

IBN GABIROL, SHLOMO. Mivchar HaPeninim [“Choice Pearls.”] Translated from the Arabic by Yehudah ibn Tibon. Soncino, Joshua Solomon ben Israel Nathan Soncino, 1484. FIRST EDITION. Square and cursive Rabbinic type alternate in text. An attractive wide-margined copy. Complete in ff. (60), including initial blank. Some marginal staining, minute wormholes silked, lower blank portion of final leaf laid to size, early inscriptions on verso. Modern morocco. Housed in elaborate solander-case. 4to. References: Vinograd, Soncino 3; Goff, Heb-98; Offenberg 57; Freimann & Marx, A-27; Stefansky, Sifrei Yesod 1-54. A collection of ethical maxims, proverbs and moral reflections. The second book - the first, according to bibliographer Gerson Cohen - printed by the Soncino Family, publishers of more Hebrew volumes than any other press - and all of the most sublime quality. The Soncinos dominated the book market for some 30 years. Thus the adage: “For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the Word of the Lord from Soncino.” See D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963) pp. 56-60.