Mekor Barukh, Barukh ibn Ya'ish, Constantinople: Eliezer ben Isaac Ashkenazi, 1576

19 leaves (10 5/8 x 7 in.; 270 x 178 mm). Top margin of a few leaves shaved affecting some headlines, dampstain in upper portion of some leaves, marginal soiling and spotting, wormtrack in lower margin of two quires. Edges mottled in blue and red. Dark blue buckram, gold-stamped title on spine.

Vinograd, Constantinople 258; Yaari, Constantinople 191. Hacker, 191

19 leaves (10 5/8 x 7 in.; 270 x 178 mm)., top margin of a few leaves shaved affecting some headlines, dampstain in upper portion of some leaves, marginal soiling and spotting, wormtrack in lower margin of two quires. Edges mottled in blue and red. Dark blue buckram, gold-stamped title on spine.
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Although we know that the author of this work was the grandson of his namesake, Barukh ibn Ya`ish ibn Isaac, the fifteenth century philosopher and translator, little else is known about him outside of what may be learned from the work itself. The title page indicates that he was still alive when the book was printed in 1576 and the introduction tells us that he journeyed several times from his birthplace in Damascus; once to Salonika, once to Venice and once to Constantinople where he arranged for the publication of his book.  Although the title page states that Mekor Barukh is a commentary on Song of Songs, Ecclesiastics, Proverbs, and Job, only the commentary on Song of Songs was actually printed. We know however, that at least the commentary on Job was already written before this volume went to press. In the introduction to the present work, ibn Ya'ish tells us that he completed the commentary on Job while imprisoned in Venice. He was released along with other Jews being held hostage to ensure the safety of Christians in the Ottoman Empire. "For such is the custom of the world, that they detain foreign travelers who came to trade in their land until their own people shall be sent out.  When these [hostages] are released, [then] those [hostages too] are released; as it  happened [in my case] between the Turks and the Venetians, and it is all recorded at length in the beginning of my commentary on Job."

Eliezer ben Isaac Ashkenazi began his carreer as a printer in Lublin from 1557 to 1573. In 1574 he set out for Constantinople, taking his typographic equipment, and setting up the press that would publish the present lot, Mekor Barukh in 1576. On the title page, he makes two allusions to his desire to relocate to the Holy Land. The first is an inscription that identifies him as one who "places his reliance on the land of the hart (Erez ha-Zevi), a biblical euphemism for the Land of Israel. The second allusion is visual; Ashkenazi uses the printer's mark popularized by Marco Antonio Giustiniani, a stylized image of the Temple in Jerusalem. That same year Eliezer went to Safed in the Land of Israel where he established the first press in the Middle East and produced six books between the years 1577-1587.