View Auction Listing - Tefillah le-Moshe

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Bidding Information
Lot #		24619
Auction End Date		9/22/2009 10:40:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)

Title Information

Title (English)

Tefillah le-Moshe

Title (Hebrew)

תפלה למשה

Author

[First Ed.] R. Moses Almosnino

City

Salonica

Publisher

Joseph Yavetz

Publication Date

1563

Collection Information

Independent Item

This listing is an independent item not part of any collection

Description Information

Physical
Description

First edition. 76 ff., quarto, 188:139 mm., extra wide margins, light age and damp staining, initial four ff. with loss of several letters in margins, final with loss of several words. A good copy bound in contemporary vellum boards, rubbed with tear.

Detailed
Description

Comments to the Pentateuch and prayer book by R. Moses b. Baruch Almosnino (c. 1515–c. 1580), Salonika rabbi, scholar, and preacher. His numerous publications show his extensive knowledge of science, philosophy, history, and rhetoric. His rabbinic scholarship was widely respected. Although his responsa were never published in collected form, authorities such as R. Samuel de Medina, R. Hayyim Benveniste, R. Isaac Adarbi, and R. Jacob di Boton, included some of them in their works. A gifted orator, he served in succession as preacher to the Salonika congregations Neveh Shalom and later the Livyat Hen, founded by Gracia Nasi. A selection of his sermons, in Hebrew is printed in his Me'ammez Ko'ah (1582). In 1565 R. Almosnino was chosen as member of a delegation to Sultan Selim II to procure the confirmation of the privileges and exemptions granted by Suleiman the Magnificent to the Salonika community in 1537. The document had been destroyed in the great fire of 1545 and the local authorities again began to place crushing burdens on the community. The two other members of the delegation died en route. R. Almosnino, with the help of Joseph Nasi, succeeded, after much heartbreaking effort, in obtaining a favorable decision (1568), and the Salonika community was given the status of a self-governing entity, which it enjoyed for many centuries. R. Almosnino's works in Hebrew include commentaries on the Five Scrolls (Yedei Moshe, 1582), a supercommentary on Abraham ibn Ezra; and a commentary on Avot (Pirkei Moshe 1562). While in Constantinople, Almosnino compiled in Ladino a description of Constantinople, published, with some rearrangement and omissions, in Spanish by Jacob Cansino of Oran under the title Extremos y Grandezas de Constantinopla. It is one of the rarest works of Spanish Jewish literature and an important historical source. He published, also in Ladino, an ethical work, Il Regimiento dela Vida (Salonika 1564), which enjoyed considerable popularity in its time. Appended to it is a lengthy treatise on dreams, "composed at the request of the most illustrious senor, Don Joseph Nasi" and giving a graphic description of the latter's luxurious way of life.

Paragraph 2

...אשר חברתי אני הצעיר משה אלמושנינו לדרישת בקשת נבון וחכם נר"ו באהבתי אותו יסודתו בהררי קדש סדר ק"ש שעל המטה ... בביאור מעלת התורה ולומדיה והתועלות הגדולות הנלוות אליה. לגלות סגולות תהלות סתריה בשני מאמרים יקרים מסודרים לפניה בחבור צבור דרושים חדשים מבית ומחוץ ... וילוה אליו אחריו ספר פרקי משה והוא פירושי על פרקי אבות בחקירות נשגבות ...

Reference
Description

CD-EPI 0110684; EJ

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