Sefer Menorat HaMaor with many Italian glosses. Mantua, after 1587.

Sefer Menorat HaMaor with many Italian glosses. Mantua, after 1587.
Sefer Menorat HaMaor, an ancient work foundational in mussar and philosophy, by Rabbi Yitzhak Abuhav HaSefardi. Early edition with the addition of an exegesis on foreign words. The colophon lists the year of printing as 1563, but a few slight changes to the edition suggest that it was printed later.

This edition was printed page-for-page based on the Mantua 1563 edition. The title page is identical to that edition and includes the words: “in the names of the partners…Rabbi Epraim bar Yitzhak…Rabbi Meir bar…Moshe Halperin of Venice and the author…Meir bar Ephraim of Padua”, but in place of Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga was printed Vincenzo Gonzaga, who arose to power in 1587, and in which year Rabbi Meir bar Ephraim was already dead. The colophon, as stated, was also copied in its entirety from the earlier edition, but includes the phrasing: “from the printer in the Migdal Oz from the generous Misi Jacomo Rupinilo”. So the book had to have been printed after 1587. The National Library (catalogued in the Rare Books section) notes: “approx. 1590”. In any event, some libraries and stores failed to note the differences and the existence of this separate edition.

116 leaves. Pretty engraved title page. Every heading is framed beautifully. Repaired title page, additional leaves repaired often with damage to the text. A few leaves have crooked cuttings which affect the top of the text. Stains, worming damage in the margins of a group of pages. Rare book in fair to good condition.

The copy is decorated with many glosses and notes in Ashkenazi-Italian script in the margins, some long and significant. The last page have signed names: “Eliezer bar Asher”, “Neue Haus”, “L’Ot u’LaMofet”. We could not identify the author of the notes.