Bidspirit auction | GERONDI, YONAH (Rabbeinu Yonah). Sha’arei

GERONDI, YONAH (Rabbeinu Yonah). Sha’arei Teshuvah [“Gates of Repentance.”]   FIRST EDITION. Bound with:  * Hai ben Sherira Gaon (attributed). Musar Haskel BeMelitzah [“Moral Lessons in Rhyme.”]  FIRST EDITION. With nikud (vowel points), printed in two columns. And:  * Yonah Gerondi. Sepher HaYir’ah [“The Book of Awe.”] Second edition. Together, three works (as issued). First, printed without a title page. On front flyleaf, signature of former owner, censors' signatures on verso of final page: “[Re]visto per mi Fra[te] Luigi” (cf. Wm. Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books, pl. IV, no. 1.) Telltale signs of censorship: On f. 22v. the words “minim” [heretics] and “mumarim” [renegades] have been erased; on f. 24v. the words “haminim vehameshumadim” [apostates] have been stricken. Extensive scholarly Hebrew marginalia  in an early Italian hand. Artistic design on final page, signed Elchanan ben Tabaël. ff. 45. Slightly stained and wormed, final leaf laid to size, trimmed. Later morocco, spine titled in gilt, marbled endpapers, extremities scuffed. 8vo. Vinograd, Fano 9; Stefansky, Sifrei Yesod 459. Fano, Gershom Soncino, 1505. Rare First Edition of Sha’arei Teshuvah. A Classic Ethical Treatise by the great Rabbeinu Yonah  (1200-63). This highly significant treatise on repentance is the earliest work on Teshuvah. It is divided into four portals: The first is devoted to a definition of repentance; the second to a description of the various ways by which a man should arouse himself to penitence; the third, a classification of the precepts and the punishments meted out for their transgression; and the fourth, a discussion of the conditions of forgiveness. Sha’arei Teshuvah is the foundational source of all subsequent works of rabbinic ethical literature.