- 117
Sefer ha-Hinnukh [Pinhas ben Joseph ha-Levi of Barcelona], Scribe: Moses ben Joseph, Assisi: 1351
Estimate
70,000 - 100,000 USD
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Description
- 291 folios, ink on parchment
290 Leaves ( 8 5/8 x 6 3/8 in.; 218 x 162 mm), written in brown ink parchment in fourteenth century Italianate Hebrew semi-cursive script; blind-ruled, 28 lines per page; pericope headings in square script; plus 2 smaller tipped in leaves (ff. 1, 110a), written on paper in black ink in a later Sephardic Hebrew cursive script, bearing notes related to the main work. collation: (*)1, 1-1010, (*)1, 11-2810, 2912= 292 leaves foliation: 1, 2-110, 110a, 111-291= 292 leaves. Diagrams: ff. 130v, 212v; space for unexecuted diagram reserved f. 245v; final verso of each quire with custos and quire number (in Hebrew letters); commandments numerated (in Hebrew letters) in margins, shaved occasionally; other occasional marginalia and notes in various inks and hands; Modern foliation in pencil; owner’s inkstamp ex-libris on front cover, all endpapers and f.1; signatures on all endpapers, ff.1, 63, 110a, 111, 164, 213. Some ink fading; natural parchment defects, mostly at margins or corners and not affecting text, sewn repairs: ff. 17, 77, 112, 178; natural 3 cm hole f. 122, smaller holes f.146, not affecting text, marginal repair to natural hole f. 167 affecting 3 letters on recto only; losses to lower outside corners, ff. 19, 21; expertly repaired, ff. 53, 66, 75; lower margins trimmed and expertly repaired, affecting a single line of text, ff. 26, 28; 119r; affecting 8/9 lines of text on f. 80 (all affected text replaced in early contemporary hand). Occasional light stains; some dampstaining to lower outside corners in quires 24-8; some worming mostly restricted to first and final few leaves; cockling to ff. 286-291 Parchment endpapers. Early twentieth century calf over partially beveled boards; gilt stamped, raised strap-bands at spine and fore-edges; front cover inlaid with etched and partially dyed vellum panel depicting Western Wall and bearing owner’s inkstamp exlibris; dentelles tooled in green; clasps perished, catches present. Rubbed at extremities.
Provenance
Moses ben Joseph, Assisi, his colophon (f. 290r) dated 15 Shevat 5111= January 13, 1351; sold by him to Solomon ben Zedekia ben Judah ben Mattathias, recorded in bill of sale (f. 290v) in Perugia, 4 Heshvan 5117 (=September 29, 1356).
Literature
Israel Ta-Shma, "Mehabbero ha-'amitti shel Sefer ha-hinnukh," Kiryat Sefer, 55 (1980): pp. 787-90.
Catalogue Note
an extremely early copy of a thirteenth century masterpiece of hebrew literature
Sefer ha-Hinnukh rearranges the 613 commandments enumerated by Maimonides in Sefer ha-Mitzvot (Book of the Commandments), listing them according to the weekly Torah portion. The identity of the author of Sefer ha-Hinnukh had, until the late twentieth century, been among the greatest mysteries of medieval Jewish literature. Despite the doubts that persisted for centuries as to the work's true author, scholars had no doubt as to the dating of the work which was composed at the end of the thirteenth century. In his introduction, the author, who refers to himself only as "a Jew of the house of Levi of Barcelona," writes that he has written the work in order to arouse the heart of his young son and his youthful companions to regularly study the commandments. Jacob ben Hayyim ibn Adonijah, the editor of the first printed edition, credits the Sefer ha-Hinnukh to a certain Rabbi Aaron leading many to speculate that the author was Aaron ben Joseph ha-Levi of Barcelona, a view which subsequently became widely accepted though it continued to trouble some scholars. In 1980, Israel Ta-Shma demonstrated convincingly that the author of Sefer ha-Hinnukh was in fact Aaron's brother, Pinhas ben Joseph ha-Levi (1235-1280), who had written the work for his son, Joshua.
Sefer ha-Hinnukh rearranges the 613 commandments enumerated by Maimonides in Sefer ha-Mitzvot (Book of the Commandments), listing them according to the weekly Torah portion. The identity of the author of Sefer ha-Hinnukh had, until the late twentieth century, been among the greatest mysteries of medieval Jewish literature. Despite the doubts that persisted for centuries as to the work's true author, scholars had no doubt as to the dating of the work which was composed at the end of the thirteenth century. In his introduction, the author, who refers to himself only as "a Jew of the house of Levi of Barcelona," writes that he has written the work in order to arouse the heart of his young son and his youthful companions to regularly study the commandments. Jacob ben Hayyim ibn Adonijah, the editor of the first printed edition, credits the Sefer ha-Hinnukh to a certain Rabbi Aaron leading many to speculate that the author was Aaron ben Joseph ha-Levi of Barcelona, a view which subsequently became widely accepted though it continued to trouble some scholars. In 1980, Israel Ta-Shma demonstrated convincingly that the author of Sefer ha-Hinnukh was in fact Aaron's brother, Pinhas ben Joseph ha-Levi (1235-1280), who had written the work for his son, Joshua.
The present manuscript is one of the the earliest extant complete copies of Sefer ha-Hinnukh, and the only fourteenth century copy remaining in private hands. The Institute for Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts records only four complete exemplars which predate our copy: before 1323 (Parma-Biblioteca Palatina Cod. Parm. 3017); from 1333 (Vatican-Biblioteca Apostolica ebr. 163); 1343 (Rome-Biblioteca Casanatense 2857); and 1350 (Parma-Biblioteca Palatina Cod. Parm. 2871), the last being completed only four weeks before the present manuscript. All were written in close proximity to each other in central Italy; in fact, it appears that each of the fewer than 10 extant complete 14th century manuscripts of Sefer ha-Hinnukh were copied within a 100 mile radius of Assisi, where the present manuscript was produced.