Or ha-Hayyim (Light of the Living) and Yesod ha-Emunah (Foundation of the Faith), Joseph ben Hayyim Jabez, Ferrara: Abraham ibn Usque, 1554

2 volumes: Both with woodcut architectural title borders surrounding printer's device, an armillary sphere whose pedestal is draped by a ribbon inscribed with the text of Psalms 130:5.



Or ha-Hayyim: 28 leaves (7¼ x 5 in.; 180 x 127 mm). Title border shaved, small wormtrack in a few leaves, small mends in fore-margins of last few leaves. some light browning and dampstaining. Dark-green cloth, speckled red edges.



Yesod ha-Emunah:16 leaves (7 1/8 x 4¾ in.; 184 x 120 mm).  Title shaved at fore-edge and lower margin, printer's mark repeated on last page, strengthened on stub, blank upper third of last leaf cut away; owner's signature on title, library stamp on f .2r; some dampstaining, spotting and soiling. Dark-green cloth, speckled red edges.

Raphaello Zuhhari—his signature on title page of Yesod ha-Emunah

Vinograd, Ferrara 23, 25

2 volumes: Both with woodcut architectural title borders surrounding printer's device, an armillary sphere whose pedestal is draped by a ribbon inscribed with the text of Psalms 130:5. Or ha-Hayyim: 28 leaves (7¼ x 5 in.; 180 x 127 mm). Title border shaved, small wormtrack in a few leaves, small mends in fore-margins of last few leaves. some light browning and dampstaining.Dark-green cloth, speckled red edges. Yesod ha-Emunah:16 leaves (7 1/8 x 4¾ in.; 184 x 120 mm). Title shaved at fore-edge and lower margin, printer's mark repeated on last page, strengthened on stub, blank upper third of last leaf cut away; owner's signature on title, library stamp on f.2r; some dampstaining, spotting and soiling. Dark-green cloth, speckled red edges.
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The printer of these volumes, Abraham Usque, was a Portuguese marrano, born Duarte Pinel in Portugal, who fled the Iberian Peninsula around the year 1543 for Ferrara, where he returned to the open practice of Judaism. In 1553, Usque took over the press established by Samuel ibn Askara Zarfati (Gallus) of Pesaro two years earlier. In the ensuing five years, He would issue more than twenty-five Hebrew titles before the press was closed in 1558 in the wake of the Counter-Reformation. In addition to Hebrew works, Usque also published titles in Spanish, most notably the 1553 Ferrara Bible, famous for the two versions which were prepared, one for Christians and the other for Jews.

The present lot comprises two short works written by Joseph ben Hayyim Jabez (d. 1507), Hebrew homilist and exegete. Or ha-Hayyim, on Jewish philosophy and its influence upon the fate of Spanish Jewry, and Yesod ha-Emunah, a treatise on the ikkarim (basic principles) of Judaism, were accompanied by a third work, Ma'amar ha-Ahdut (also published by Usque in 1544 but not present here.) After the expulsion from Spain in 1492, Jabez traveled to Lisbon, Sicily, and then to Italy. After a brief stay in Naples, he arrived in 1493 or 1494 in Mantua, one of the largest and most cultured Italian-Jewish communities.