Bidspirit auction | ELEAZER BEN YEHUDA OF WORMS.

ELEAZER BEN YEHUDA OF WORMS. Sepher HaRoke’ach [ethics, rabbinic law and custom]. FIRST EDITION. Text complete in ff. 109 (of 110), only lacking final blank. Stained, expert paper repairs, remargined with minor loss of text in places reproduced in facsimile. Modern tinted vellum. Folio. Vinograd, Fano 12. Fano, (Gershom Soncino), 1505. The first Hebrew Book to be Printed with a Title-page. Entitled “Rokeach” - whose numerical value equals that of the Author’s first name, Eleazar (=308). A disciple of R. Yehuda HeChasid, the Rhine-based Author (c. 1165-c. 1230) was a wide-ranging scholar with an oeuvre ranging from Halacha, Kabbalah, exegesis and piyut; he was the last major figure of the Chassidei Aschkenaz Movement. The present work follows the tradition of many of the works of the Ba’alei-Tosafot of France and Germany, geared toward educating the scholar in the specific details of Halacha as well as recommended Minhag and ritual. This book was ssued by Gershom Soncino, who was perhaps the most prolific printer of his time, producing more than one hundred Hebrew titles and as many non-Hebrew texts (under the name Hieronymus Soncino). Regarding his years based in Fano, located on the Adriatic coast, see M. Marx, Gershom Soncino’s Wanderyears in Italy, in HUCA Vol. XI (1936) pp. 457-59.