Homilies on Passages from the Bible, Talmud and Midrash [Spain or Ottoman Empire: 14th-15th Century]

53 leaves (7 7/8 x 5 5/8 in.; 200 x 145 mm). Written in brown ink on paper in Sephardic Hebrew semi-cursive script; 25 lines; ff. 41-53 written in a different, more cursive script. Loose in binding, some leaves detached; marginal tape repairs; adhesive tape at hinges, f. 1; holes, ff. 26, 50; tear at foot, f. 34. Old vellum.

Provenance: Charles Augustus Fernald (1848- after 1931) of Boston (stamped ex-libris at end of MS); Dr. Harry Austyn Savitz [Brookline, 1895-1994] (ex-libris on inside cover).

a rare and important unknown homiletical work

The present manuscript is a previously unknown homiletical work, almost certainly of Spanish origin, from the fourteenth or fifteenth century, comprising commentaries on passages in the Bible, Talmud (mainly aggadah) and Midrash.

Dr. Benjamin Richler, former Director of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts reports having been unable to locate any other copy of this work. The anonymous author was obviously an erudite scholar with an intimate knowledge of the full range of Talmudic and Midrashic literature. He was also clearly familiar with philosophical terminology, as seen in a few of his homilies which tend towards the philosophical. There are however, almost no kabbalistic tendencies.

The author quotes earlier authorities only infrequently and then exclusively Spanish rabbinical authorities. These include Maimonides (ff. 21v, 25v) and Nahmanides (f. 25 v) as well as Jonah Gerondi (f. 14v) and Isaac Israeli's work Yesod Olam (f. 24v). The latest authority quoted (f. 25r) is Levi b.Gershon whose death in 1344 makes that year the terminus a quo for the composition of the work. There seem to be no other clues to the author's identity within the text, nor any mention of his teachings, or other works he may have written. The beginning of the manuscript is absent, though the homilies are not arranged in any systematic order A later hand has enumerated the passages in the margins (up to f. 41) from 1-73, and the manuscript begins in the middle of paragraph 5, indicating only a small number of missing folios.  A previous owner, probably C.A. Fernald, seems to have written in English a catalogue of his library on the margins of many of the pages listing the names of authors, and occasionally book titles, in alphabetical order. 

The rare discovery of a previously unknown medieval Sephardic homiletical work serves as a testimonial to the extent of the cultural and literary loss that accompanied the great Iberian expulsions of the late fifteenth century and also as a pointed reminder of the breadth of Sephardic literature in the centuries before those tragic and earth-shattering events.

Sotheby's gratefully acknowledges the information used here from a report on the present manuscript prepared by Dr. Benjamin Richler, former Director of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts.