Yalkut Shimoni (The Anthology of Simon), Shimon ha-Darshan, Salonika: Moses Soncino and Shem-Tob Avshraga, 1526 and Don Yehuda Gedaliah for Solomon ibn Yakar, 1521

TWO VOLUMES, 443+304 leaves (11 3/4x 7¾ in.; 300 x 200 mm). Printed in two columns In Sephardic semi-cursive with headings in square Hebrew type. VOL. I (Pentateuch) COLLATION: 1-10⁶, 11⁵, 1-63⁶=443 leaves; FOLIATION: 1-65, 1-378= 443 leaves. Title painted in red within foliate woodcut border; owners’ signatures on title,ex-library stamp on 1v, 442v; margins of title and f.2 repaired affecting a few words; scattered marginalia, extensive on f. 65v; occasional marginal repairs, rarely affecting text; final 14 ff. mounted, slightly affecting text; Some staining, mostly marginal. VOL. II (Former and Latter Prophets, Hagiographa) COLLATION:1-22⁶, 23⁸, 1-10⁶, 20⁸, 24⁴, 25-38⁶, 39⁸=304 leaves; FOLIATION: 1-140, 1-63 [2], 64-66, 139, 139, 143-158, 163-164, 161-188, 193, 190-236=304 leaves. Printed without title; owners' notations on 1r &v; ex-library stamp on 1v, 303v; censor's notation, 303v; few marginal repairs, lightly stained. Both volumes bound in modern tan morocco tooled in brown; leather straps, brass clasps and catches.

Vinograd, Salonika 14, 34; Mehlman, Ginzei Yisrael 200, 201; Steinschneider 7197, 1 and 1a cols. 2600-2603; Arthur B. Hyman, Mekorot Yalkut Shimoni, 1965; William Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books, New York, 1899.

A RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE ENTIRE YALKUT SHIMONI

Little is known of Shimon ha-Darshan, the compiler of this thirteenth century work, but his aggregation of over 10,000 statements in aggadah and halakhah, covering all the books of the Bible, stands on its own merits, insofar as it represents a majority of the rabbinical sayings at his disposal at that time.  He collected material from more than 50 rabbinic works and for some of these, the Yalkut is the only source, including Sifrei Zuta, Yelammedenu, Midrash Esfah, Midrash Avkir, Midrash Tadshe,and Devarim Zuta. The identification of these works was made possible in part by the author's custom of noting the source for his statement.

The Salonika Yalkut Shimoni appeared in two parts. The first section was printed in 1521 by Don Yehuda Gedaliah for Solomon ibn Yakar and deals with the Prophets and Hagiographa. In 1526, Moses Soncino and Shem-Tob Avshraga printed the larger portion, on the Pentateuch (1526); both volumes are included in the present lot. The Pentateuch section includes an addendum called kunteres aharon, omitted from all subsequent editions. The numbering system is arcane and according to some, arbitrary, but it seems probable that it served an internal need of the book itself, its purpose being not to divide the work into sections, but to indicate those statements to which the author intended to refer in some other part of his work.

The Salonika edition has long been recognized by scholars as superior to all subsequent editions, as later editors and printers used a free hand in altering passages according to their own views, but only succeeded in corrupting the text. Even the few manuscripts which survive, are mostly fragmentary and in their totality do not cover all the material in the Salonika edition. Furthermore, Arthur Hyman, in his Mekorot Yalkut Shimoni , includes several long and important passages which occur only in the Salonika imprint but were excluded from later editions by the censor.

The verso of the penultimate folio bears the signature of the Inquisitor of Urbino, Antonio Francesco Enrique (See Popper: pp. 104, 139 [§44], and plate iv, line 3). As Popper notes, Enrique was the last of the Italian censors who operated in the seventeenth century and the latest act of expurgation attributed to him precedes the date of his censoring this book by one year, effectively making the present copy the last Hebrew book known to have been censored by the Inquisition in the sixteenth century.