Bidspirit auction | KALONYMOS BEN KALONYMOS OF ARLES

KALONYMOS BEN KALONYMOS OF ARLES (Maestro Calo). Even Bochan [ethics]. Edited by Yom Tov Tzarfathi ben Peretz. FIRST EDITION. Wide-margined copy. Marginalia in Ladino. ff. 46 (of 50) opening four leaves supplied in facsimile. Several leaves laid to size; outer third of f. 22 provided in facsimile. Stained in places, few neat paper repairs. Recent gilt-ruled morocco, spine in compartments; housed in custom slip-case. Sm. 4to. Vinograd, Naples 7; Goff Heb-66; Offenberg 102; Wineman Cat. 35a; Stefansky, Sifrei Yesod i-60. Naples, Yoseph ben Ya’akov Aschkenazi Gunzenhauser, 1489. Of distinguished family lineage, Kalonymos ben Kalonymus (1287-1337) originated from Arles, Provence, and bore the title Nasi. He studied in Salonika and later moved to Catalonia and then Rome, where he composed many original philosophical works. Composed in the year 1322, Even Bochan is an ethical treatise written in rhyme in which the author intended to show the vanity of contemporary society. At the end, he enumerates Jewish suffering, expressing the hope that God will have pity on his people who, in the three years (1319–22) during which time Even Bochan was written, had suffered widespread persecution, culminating with an auto-da-fé of the Talmud in Toulouse. Leaves 32-33 printed here in correct order. See I. Rikind, Dikdukei Sepharim in: Kiryath Sepher II, p. 56, no. 3. * Provenance: The Moses Gaster - Elkan Nathan Adler - Joseph Wineman - Michael D. Paul copy.