Or Ammim (Light of the Nations), Obadiah Sforno, Bologna: Company of Silk Weavers, 1537

64 leaves (8¼ x 6¼ in.; 210 x 159 mm). Title water-stained, title and ff. 4-6 strengthened at top margin, some occasional spotting and soiling but generally clean with wide margins, fore-edge margin of f. 10 cut away. Censor's signature on title page (Hippolitus of Ferrara, 1601). Nineteenth-century black cloth with gold-stamped border and central stamp; backstrip renewed with dark grey cloth, shelf-mark label on spine; corners and edges rubbed.

Rabbi Mordecai Samuel Ghirondi (Chief Rabbi of Padua) (1799–1852)—his signature on title page; Rabbi Nahum Dov Friedman of Sadagora—his bookplate on front paste-down endpaper; —his signature on front free endpaper and (as Nahum Duber Friedman)—his stamp on title page; Dr. Jakob Klatzkin (1882–1948)—his bookplate on front paste-down endpaper

Vinograd, Bologna 8; Mehlman 1219; David Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy, pp.232-35.; Heller, pp. 224-225

64 leaves (8¼ x 6¼ in.; 210 x 159 mm). Title water-stained, title and leaves 4-6 strengthened at top margin, some occasional spotting and soiling but generally clean with wide margins, fore-edge margin of f. 10 cut away. Censor's signature on title page (Fra Hippolitus 1601). Nineteenth-century black cloth with gold-stamped border and central stamp; backstrip renewed with dark grey cloth, shelf-mark label on spine; corners and edges rubbed.
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copy of the rebbe of sadigora

Obadiah Sforno is best known for his eponymous commentary on the Pentateuch, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes, which first appeared in Venice in 1567, several years after his death. Born in Cesena, the renowned Italian biblical commentator and physician studied philosophy, mathematics, philology, and medicine in Rome where, on Cardinal Grimani's recommendation he taught Hebrew to Johannes Reuchlin. Upon settling in Bologna, he played an active role in resuscitating a Hebrew printing house and in organizing the community.

Or Ammim is a philosophical treatise which seeks to refute those views of Aristotle which are in conflict with the principles of Judaism, by employing the basic elements of the Greek philosopher's own teachings. He translated the work into Latin, under the title Lumen Gentium, dedicating it to King Henry II of France (Bologna, 1548). This was the first volume published by an anonymous group of partners who in addition to undertaking the printing of this volume were involved in the local silk trade. The fact that Sforno was still alive at the time of the book's publication allowed the silk weavers to present the galleys to the author for his corrections, which appear on the final two pages of the volume.