Bidspirit auction | Sefer Toldos Aharon, Freiburg 1583.

Sefer Toldos Aharon, Freiburg 1583. First Edition. -   A rare complete copy of the first edition of Toldos Aharon, one of the most fundamental works on the Torah. It serves as an index to locate every verse in the Torah, where it can be found in the Talmud. Authored by R. Aharon of Pesaro, and was brought to print about 20 years after his death. Due to its immense popularity, Toldos Aharon has been printed alongside every Chumash for the past several centuries.  Interestingly, at the end of the volume the printer adds a very intriguing statement without revealing much detail: “The time will come to reveal the reason why the printing of this work has been delayed until now… two Jews have caused this, one from Poland and one who lives in Prague, who both undermined us… they shall be very embarrassed by their act… May Hashem return their evildoing unto them, Amen”. (Loosely translated from Hebrew, please refer to Hebrew description for an exact quote).  Although this statement remains vague, perhaps the printer alludes to this in more detail on the title page, by stating: “One might claim that a work like this has already been printed in Lublin… however [it is not the case as] one can see that there is no comparison between the two”. Seemingly, there had been a dispute regarding the printing of this work due to an earlier similar work, so the printing was delayed. This perhaps might be the meaning of the abovementioned vague statement. In good condition. A small abrasion to title page, partly affecting two words of text. Margins closely trimmed, sometimes with loss to text. A small hole seen on final leaf, with loss of only one letter of text.  [39] pp.