Midrash Tilim (Tehilim), Constantinople: Samuel ben David ibn Nahmias, 1512

52 leaves (11  1/4  x 7  1/2  in.; 288 x 190 mm). collation: 1-8⁶, 9⁴=52 leaves, double leaf signatures. Title page mounted, with loss of a single word on verso. Title page, pen trials, owner's inscription, inkstains. Paper tape repairs to some margins and corners; final quire from a shorter copy. Dampstaining. Cloth; gilt titles on spine, with losses.

The title page gives the name of the work as Midrash Tillim using a common truncation for the proper name of the book of Psalms (Tehillim). While neither the author nor the redactor of Midrash Tillim are known, the work is an early compilation of discourses which likely followed the recitation of Psalms. With aggadic elements traceable to the early Talmudic period, the midrash was composed over several centuries from sources quite divergent in style and content. By all accounts however, the corpus represented in this first edition was complete before the end of the Geonic era. Midrash Tillim was the first title printed by Samuel ben David ibn Nahmias who became proprietor of the Nahmias press after the deaths of his father and uncle. The colophon dates the work to 25 Adar 5272=13 March 1512, though that date is problematic in light of the fact that 25 Adar fell on a Saturday in 1512. (Vinograd Constantinople, 36.)