Bidspirit auction | DE VIDAS, ELIJAH

DE VIDAS, ELIJAH - Reishith Chochmah [”Beginning of Wisdom”: ethics]. Second edition. On title, printer's device of three crowns (Yaari, Hebrew Printers' Marks 18). Section headings within engraved vignettes. Last page with Hebrew manuscript in an Italian hand featuring a meditative prayer composed by Nachmanides to be recited for husband and wife prior to sexual relations, along with a related Kabbalistic incantation. ff. 391, (blank, 31, index). Signatures removed from title, stained in places. Bound in Valmadonna-custom mahogany calf. Thick 4to. Vinograd, Venice 788. Venice : Giovanni di Gara 1593 Elijah de Vidas (1518–87) was a disciple of R. Moses Cordovero, doyen of the Kabbalists in Safed. Despite its mystical overtones, Reishith Chochmah has become an important classic of ethical/pietistic literature. The work focuses upon the moral aspects of Jewish life, linking the motifs of Aggadic and Mussar literature with that of Kabbalah, thus broadly disseminating mystical ideas.