Meshovev Netivot and a Commentary on Ruah Hen, Scribe: Eliezer ben Abraham Ellenburg, [Italy, 1555]

Fols. 1r-10v: Meshovev Netivot by Samuel Motot, a commentary on Sefer Yezirah. Only the first part was copied.

Fols. 11r-26v: Anonymous commentary on the philosophical treatise Ruah Hen. The author quotes the fifteenth-century rabbinic authority Seligmann Bing. Another copy of this commentary is preserved in Oxford, Bodleian Library Ms. Opp. 136.

At the beginning of the manuscript, Eliezer ben Abraham added a poem followed by a preface in which he stated that he prepared this copy while in prison in the year 5315 [1555]. This Eliezer, who was probably the scribe of the manuscript, can be identified as Eliezer ben Abraham Eilenburg whose original writings and copies of works of other authors are found in several manuscripts, but mainly in New York, JTS mss. 2323 and 2324. In his preface to Meshovev Netivot Eilenburg seems to attribute the work to himself. He copied parts of Motot’s preface but omitted Motot’s name and added details about his imprisonment and its date. In JTS ms. 2323 he clearly stated that he had authored Meshovev Netivot while he was in prison in Nysa (Poland).

Sotheby’s is grateful to Menahem Schmelzer z”l and Benjamin Richler for cataloguing this manuscript.

Provenance

Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 220)

Physical Description

26 leaves on paper, 10 5/8 x 7 1/8 inches; 270 x 182 mm, written in Ashkenazic semi-cursive script in brown ink, catchwords, diagram on fol. 21; fore-edges dampstained throughout, fol. 8 loose, fols. 9-10 reinforced along inner margin. Nineteenth-century marbled boards, cloth spine; spine faded and cockled.

Literature

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 303); A. Marx, in ZfHB, 10, 1906, p. 176; David Kaufmann, Die Spuren Al-Bataljui's . (Budapest 1880), p. 20); on Eilenburg cf. J.N. Davis, in Jewish Quarterly Review, 91 (2001), pp. 293-336