David Ben Joseph Abudraham

Perush ha-Berakhot ve-ha-Tefillot (Commentary on Blessings and Prayers). Lisbon: [Eliezer ben Judah Toledano], 1 Tevet 5250 (25 November 1489)



Chancery folio (10 7/8 x 7 ¾ in.; 275 x 185 mm). Types 1:230 (sq.), 2:117 (sc.). Metalcut full border and metalcut initial (Thes B19.1). Double column, 34 lines + headline. collation: [1^{10 2–108 116 12–208 2110]: 170 leaves, 170v blank, the sheets signed sequentially, with errors, complete; fol. 1 laid down and bound with verso as recto, fol. 170 laid down, in quire 15, sheet 3.6 is bound in front of 4.5, a few marginalia, the first leaf stained and with frayed outer margin, but the border intact and strongly impressed, other scattered stains, the paper generally very strong. Nineteenth-century marbled boards, sheep spine and tips, edges plain.}

Offenberg 1; Goff Heb-36; GW 8160; Steinschneider 4784.1; Thes B19; Iakerson 101; BMC XIII 96 (C.50c.16)

Perush ha-Berakhot ve-ha-Tefillot (Commentary on Blessings and Prayers). Lisbon: [Eliezer ben Judah Toledano], 1 Tevet 5250 (25 November 1489) Chancery folio (10 7/8 x 7 ¾ in.; 275 x 185 mm). Types 1:230 (sq.), 2:117 (sc.). Metalcut full border and metalcut initial (Thes B19.1). Double column, 34 lines + headline. collation: [110 2–108 116 12–208 2110]: 170 leaves, 170v blank, the sheets signed sequentially, with errors, complete; fol. 1 laid down and bound with verso as recto, fol. 170 laid down, in quire 15, sheet 3.6 is bound in front of 4.5, a few marginalia, the first leaf stained and with frayed outer margin, but the border intact and strongly impressed, other scattered stains, the paper generally very strong. Nineteenth-century marbled boards, sheep spine and tips, edges plain.
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First Edition, The Second Book Printed In Lisbon. Abudraham's work is a liturgical commentary composed in Seville, 1340, which gives information on the varying rites of congegations in Spain, Provence, France, and Ashkenaz. Its appearance in print seems to have given it a new lease on life, for there were a number of later reprints in Constantinople, Fez, Venice, and Amsterdam, as well as two twentieth-century editions. As printed, the text contains two schematic diagrams of the Temple and the Altar (23v, 24r), constructed with type-rules; and five tables similarly constructed giving calendrical information, including new moons (defining the starts of months), leap years, weekly portions, and parashot (134r, 137r, 137v, 139v, 140r).

The beautiful metalcut border, well preserved in this copy, had long migrations. It was used first in a Christian liturgical book, the Manuale Caesaraugustanum (Goff M-212), unsigned and of unknown place; and then in the undated (ca. 1487-8) Pentateuch with Haftarot and Five Scrolls printed by Eliezer Alantansi in Híjar (Offenberg 15). Later still, it was used in Constantinople in the first decade of the sixteenth century in Constantinople. Its workmanship is very plausibly attributed to the Spanish printer Alfonso Fernandez de Cordoba, who is known to have printed in Valencia 1477–1485, with an intervening book completed in Murcia 6 January 1484 (IGI 2087). The border was originally designed specifically for the Manuale Caesaraugustanum, often located to Híjar but more probably produced by Fernandez de Cordoba in Valencia or Murcia. That book is a quarto printed with a larger than Chancery sheet, the Huntington copy measuring 252 x 183 mm. With its relatively small dimensions, 185 x 135 mm, this border sits on a Chancery folio page with unusually large surrounding margins. In Constantinople, it was used successfully in quarto editions.