Bidspirit auction | ALKABETZ, SHLOMO. Sepher Manoth HaLevi

ALKABETZ, SHLOMO. Sepher Manoth HaLevi [Kabbalistic commentary to the Book of Esther, with text]. FIRST EDITION.  Title within architectural arch (text slightly variant). ff. (4), 225 (i.e. 231), (1). Some worming, stained in places, corners turned. Contemporary limp vellum, worn. Sm. 4to. Vinograd, Venice 680. Venice, Giovanni di Gara, 1585. R. Shlomo Alkabetz (c. 1505-84) was a liturgical poet and Kabbalist, venerated today as the composer of “Lechah Dodi, ” the mystic love-song chanted at sundown on Sabbath Eve to the arriving Sabbath Queen. R. Alkabetz, emigrated from the Balkans to the Land of Israel in 1535, settling in Safed, then the center of Kabbalistic learning. There, he was part of an extraordinary fraternity of mystics that included R. Yoseph Karo and R. Moshe Alsheich. R. Moshe Cordovero was R. Alkabetz’s brother-in-law and initially his disciple, although it seems that eventually their relationship reversed.