Mivhar ha-Peninim, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Soncino, Joshua Solomon ben Israel Nathan Soncino: 1484

60 leaves (7 ¾ x 5 ½ in.; 196 x 142 mm) including the initial blank, absent in most copies. collation: 1-78, 84=60 leaves. Very minor staining; a few manuscript notes; leather bookplate (the 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), Prime Minister of Great Britain) inside lower cover, matching gilt and crimson numeral plaque, outside lower cover. Pasteboards (probably nineteenth-century) covered with a rubricated leaf of a Latin incunable philosophical text.

Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild (1818-1874), with a copy of a bookseller's bill enclosed for this volume and another book, both bought from Asher, c.1868; by descent to his only daughter Hannah (1851-1890), who in 1878 married the 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), Prime Minister of Britain--his leather bookplate inside lower cover; by descent. to the present Lord Rosebery.  Purchased by the present owner on December 5th, 1994 in our London rooms.

Vinograd, Soncino 3; Offenberg 57; Goff, Heb-98; Steinschneider, C. B. 6916, 1, cols. 2319-23 'ed.rarissima'.

FIRST EDITION; THE SECOND BOOK PRINTED IN SONCINO; THE COPY OF BARON MAYER AMSCHEL DE ROTHSCHILD

The Mivhar ha-Peninim (Choice of Pearls, or Choice of Corals) is a collection of epigrams all aimed at the cultivation of a virtuous soul. The maxims are gathered from Islamic, Persian, and Indian sources, and arranged into various themes. The work has long been attributed to the poet and philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol, who flourished in Spain in the mid-11th century, and wrote both in Hebrew and Arabic, but the evidence seems not to be certain. The translation has been attributed to Judah ibn Tibbon, of the 12th century Provençal dynasty and the colophon includes the name of the corrector, Solomon ben Perets Bonfoy Zarfati, whose name appears also in the colophons of several books printed by the Gunzenhausers in Naples.

The present copy was formerly in the collection of Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild (1818-1874), from whom it was inherited, c. 1868; by his only daughter Hannah (1851-1890). Upon her death, it was incorporated into the collection of her husband, Archibald Primrose, the 5th Earl of Roseberry and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.