Meshal Ha-Kadmoni, Isaac ibn Shahula, Venice; Meir Parenzo, [1547]

64 leaves (7 x 4 3/4  in.; 180 x 120 mm). Printer’s device on title. Eighty woodcut illustrations. Some soiling and staining, including dampstaining at margins; owners’ notes on title page and verso; a few marginal tears, most repaired; fore-edge final leaf chipped. Modern brown calf, blind fillet and corner devices, spine gilt tooled and lettered.

Vinograd, Venice 319;  A.M. Habermann, Kiryat Sefer vol. XXIX pp. 199-203; Amram, pp. 367-71; Roth, Jewish Art, cols. 476-77.

Illustrated collection of moral fables and animal stories by Isaac ben Solomon ibn Abi Sahula (b. 1244), in rhymed prose interspersed with verse. Ibn Sahula, who was both a scholar and a physician, writes that his material is original but based on the Talmud and Midrashim, and that in style he has followed the example of the prophets who presented moral lessons in allegorical form. He also wished to demonstrate that Hebrew was as suitable a vehicle for conveying moral lessons as Arabic. The stories show both kabbalistic and Indian influence. Some eighty woodcut illustrations grace the 64 leaves of this book, with one or two captioned woodcuts to a page. Though modeled on the program of illustration of the incunable editions, Meir Parenzo, the printer of this edition, commissioned an entire new series of woodcut illustrations providing more detail and artistic sophistication.