Bidspirit auction | EMDEN, YA’AKOV . Lechem Shamayim

EMDEN, YA’AKOV . Lechem Shamayim [commentary to the Mishnah]. * Part I. Verso of title with diagram of the position of the Temple furniture (according to the Raavad). ff. (1), 122 (i.e. 121). * Part II. ff. 104, 36. Complete as issued without a title page. Together, two parts bound in one volume. BOTH FIRST EDITION. Foxed and browned, few paper repairs. Modern calf. Folio. Vinograd, Wandsbeck 18; and Vinograd, Altona 87 (NLI copy incomplete). Wandsbeck, Israel ben Abraham, 1720; and Altona, by the Author, 1768. Lechem Shamayim is a commentary on the Mishnah and to Hilchoth Beth Habechirah by the Ramba'm. This was the very first of some 30 titles issued by R. Ya’akov Emden (1697-1776), and the only one published before he established his own printing press. The author introduces the work with apologies for presuming to contribute to existing scholarship despite his youth, and specifically for arguing with the highly regarded Tosafos Yom Tov commentary, which he notes was the only Mishnah commentary available to him.