Nahmanides (Moses ben Nahman)

Perush ha-Torah (Commentary on the Pentateuch); with a letter from Nahmanides to his son, written from Jerusalem. Lisbon: Eliezer ben Judah Toledano, 18 [but actually 17?] Av [5]249 (15 July 1489)



Chancery folio (12 x 8 1/8 in.; 305 x 212 mm). Types 1:230 (sq.), 2:117 (sc.). Metalcut full border and metalcut ornamental initials (Thes B18.1-2). Double column, 35 lines. collation: [1^{8 (+8*) 2–68 712 8–1310 1412 15–1610; 17–2810 29–308 3112]: 299 (of 301 leaves), 16/10 (fol. 153) and the last leaf blanks, the sheets signed sequentially with errors; lacking only the two blanks; leaves 1–3 are remargined (with losses both to the border and a portion of the text on 1v), leaves 10/10–12/1 remargined, possibly supplied from a smaller copy, likewise 22/1 and 31/1, the last four leaves with crude repairs, scattered stains and several crudely repaired tears. Overall, however, the paper is in very good condition, and with very large margins. Twentieth-century vellum, edges plain.}

Offenberg 97; Goff Heb-87; Hain 11670; Steinschneider 6532.49; Thes B18; Iakerson 100; BMC XIII 94 (C.50.d.3). On the metalcut border, see lot 18.

Perush ha-Torah (Commentary on the Pentateuch); with a letter from Nahmanides to his son, written from Jerusalem. Lisbon: Eliezer ben Judah Toledano, 18 [but actually 17?] Av [5]249 (15 July 1489) Chancery folio (12 x 8 1/8 in.; 305 x 212 mm). Types 1:230 (sq.), 2:117 (sc.). Metalcut full border and metalcut ornamental initials (Thes B18.1-2). Double column, 35 lines. collation: [18 (+8*) 2–68 712 8–1310 1412 15–1610; 17–2810 29–308 3112]: 299 (of 301 leaves), 16/10 (fol. 153) and the last leaf blanks, the sheets signed sequentially with errors; lacking only the two blanks; leaves 1–3 are remargined (with losses both to the border and a portion of the text on 1v), leaves 10/10–12/1 remargined, possibly supplied from a smaller copy, likewise 22/1 and 31/1, the last four leaves with crude repairs, scattered stains and several crudely repaired tears. Overall, however, the paper is in very good condition, and with very large margins. Twentieth-century vellum, edges plain.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The first book printed in lisbon. Second edition of Nahmanides' commentary, preceded by the Rome edition of ca. 1469–73 (Offenberg 96, see preceding lot). There is an overlap in typographical materials between Eliezer Toledano's Lisbon press, and the press of Eliezer Alantansi in Híjar 1485–1490, and it was formerly hypothesized that the two Eliezers were one person. However a Portuguese royal document concerning properties in the Judiaria Grande of Lisbon, dated 8 March 1497, shortly before the expulsion, clearly identifies the Lisbon Eliezer as the son of Judah, also of Lisbon; whereas Alantansi was the son of Abraham. The document records their family name of Toledano; and notes that Eliezer was also called Manuel (BMC XIII, lxv). In his colophons, he names himself only as Eliezer; Moses Marx has argued that the colophons also contain, in abbreviated form, the name of Judah Gedaliah, who in the sixteenth century is found as a printer in Salonika.

The colophon gives the date as 18 Av, corresponding to 16 July 1489; BMC XIII, lxiv n. 93, referring back to an observation by Alexander Marx, points out that the day is also identified as a Wednesday, which if accurate would be the day before, 17 Av or 15 July. In the standard bibliographies, and especially BMC XIII, the first quire is treated as containing four sheets, with a single leaf added at the end. It may be that this was produced as a five-sheet quire, 1¹⁰, with an initial blank not preserved or recognized in the surviving copies.