Bidspirit auction | DI UCEDA, SHMUEL. Igereth Shmuel

DI UCEDA, SHMUEL. Igereth Shmuel [commentary to the Book of Ruth, with text and Rashi]. FIRST EDITION . Wider margins. ff. (84). Despite few stains, an attractive, clean copy. Modern boards Sm. 4to. Vinograd, Constantinople 314. Kuru Cesme (Constantinople), Joseph Ascaloni for Dona Reyna, Duchess of Naxos, 1597. Following the death in 1593 of the Constantinople-based Hebrew printer Solomon Jabez, Doña Reyna widow of the illustrious Don Joseph Nasi, used the remaining inheritance left to her (following the expropriation of much of her wealth) to establish a printing-press in her Palace of Belvedere in nearby Orta-Koy. For reasons unclear, the press was soon transferred to Kuru-Cesme, another suburb of Constantinople. Thus, “the noble lady of noble lineage” became the first Jewish woman to establish a printing-press - and the present work became the first Hebrew book printed in Kuru Cesme. Today, Kuruçeşme is a neighborhood in the municipality and district of Beşiktaş, Istanbul Province, Turkey. The author of this commentary, R. Shmuel Uceda, was born in Safed in 1540 and studied there under the tutelage of the famed R. Isaac Luria (the Ar’i z’l, 1534-72). After the latter’s death, R. Shmuel continued studying under the Ari’s primary disciple, R. Chaim Vital (1542-1620). In 1580 R. Shmuel Uceda established his own yeshiva in the city which was supported by the Nasi family for decades. Hence a direct link was long maintained between the Holy City of Tzfat and Constantinople / Istanbul, the economic, cultural and historic hub of the Ottoman Empire. See Pierpont Morgan Library Catalogue, Hebraica from the Valmadonna Trust (1989), no. 49; A.J. Karp, From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress (1991), pp. 167-69; and C. Roth, The House of Nasi-The Duke of Naxos (1948), pp. 217-19.