Lot 119
  • 119

Minhag Avot/Sefer ha-Tanya, [Jehiel ben Jekuthiel ben Benjamin ha-Rofeh Anav], Mantua: Samuel ben Meir Latif, 1514

Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 USD
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Description

100 leaves (7½ x 5 3/8 in.; 190 x 136 mm) with an additional manuscript leaf with red wax seal and bibliographic inscription, bound in at end; original f. 100 (index) now bound as f.1. Woodcut initial; worming in gutter margin of title mended, waterstains in a few internal quires along with a few worm punctures; owners' notations on added flyleaf and final blank; library stamp on title obscured. Nineteenth-century black cloth, ms. title and shelfmark labels on spine; edges and corners torn.

Literature

Vinograd, Mantua 16; Mehlman 725

Condition

100 leaves (7½ x 5 3/8 in.; 190 x 136 mm) with an additional manuscript leaf with red wax seal and bibliographic inscription, bound in at end; original f. 100 (index) now bound as f.1. Woodcut initial; worming in gutter margin of title mended, waterstains in a few internal quires along with a few worm punctures; owners' notations on added flyleaf and final blank; library stamp on title obscured. Nineteenth-century black cloth, ms. title and shelfmark labels on spine; edges and corners torn.
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Catalogue Note

The authorship of Minhag Avot/Sefer Tanya, a comprehensive halakhic digest, remains uncertain though it is most frequently ascribed to Jehiel ben Jekuthiel ben Benjamin ha-Rofeh, late thirteenth century scribe, liturgical poet, and author.

An early opinion was voiced by Simon ha-Levi (who republished the work in Cremona in 1565). He states that the author, "being most humble, not wanting to take the crown of greatness appropriate to him, did not mention his name, but there are those who say he was Jehiel, brother of. Jacob, Ba`al ha-Turim, for he mentions himself in this work as 'I, the scribe Jehiel.'" Modern scholarship no longer accepts this oft repeated attribution and it is now believed that the author was Jehiel ben Jekuthiel, perhaps a great-nephew of Zedekiah (ha-Rofeh) ben Abraham, author of Shibbolei ha-Leket  to which the present work has been compared. The similarities, including identical language, leaves little doubt as to the close relationship of the two works with Minhag Avot/Sefer Tanya being a concise edition of Shibbolei ha-Leket.

This work later became known as Tanya Rabbati, to distinguish it from the later similarly titled Tanya of the founder of Lubavitch Hasidism, Schneur Zalman of Liadi.