× Bidding has ended on this item.
Ended

Hovot ha-Levavot, Mantua 1559; Ateret Zekeinim, Sabbioneta 1556

חובות הלבבות - עטרת זקנים - First Edition

Listing Image
Payment Options
Seller Accepts Credit Cards

Payment Instructions
You will be emailed an invoice with payment instructions upon completion of the auction.
Details
  • Lot Number 46498
  • Title (English) Hovot ha-Levavot, Mantua 1559; Ateret Zekeinim
  • Title (Hebrew) חובות הלבבות; עטרת זקנים
  • Note עטרת זקנים - First Edition
  • Author R. Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda; Don Isaac Abravanel
  • City Mantua; Sabbioneta
  • Publisher (דפוס מאיר בן אפרים מפדובה ויעקב בן נפתלי הכהן מגאזולו); Tobias Foa
  • Publication Date 1559; 1556
  • Estimated Price - Low 3,000
  • Estimated Price - High 6,000

  • Item # 1295580
  • End Date
  • Start Date
Description

Physical Description:

Hovot - 103 ff., quarto, 200:142 mm., light age staining, censors on title verso, wide margins, old hands. Very good copies bound in later boards, rubbed.

Bound with: Ateret - First edition. 40 ff., light age and damp staining, wide margins, [4] unnumbered ff not present as usual.

 

 

Detailed Description:   

Hovot ha-Levavot (Duties of the Heart), the classical ethical work of R. Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda. Hovot ha-Levavot is an ethical and philosophical classic on man’s obligations to God. Bahya (Bahye) ben Joseph ibn Paquda (late 11th century), a resident of Saragossa in Muslim Spain, was a dayyan and paytan (liturgical poet), but little else is known about him. He is remembered today for Hovot ha-Levavot written in Arabic, as Kitab al-Hidaya ila Faraid al-Qulub and translated into Hebrew in 1161 by Judah ibn Tibbon. Bahya’s reasons for writing Hovot ha-Levavot are stated in the introduction, where, after dividing a person’s duties into those of the body and of the heart, he observes that the latter, “confirmation of our faith in the contents of the Torah by logical demonstrations” is not the subject of a specific work. R. Bahya writes in the introduction, This department of knowledge, the science of the Duties of the Heart, had, I saw, been entirely neglected. No work had been composed, systematically setting forth its principles and divisions. I was so greatly surprised that I said to myself, Possibly this class of duties is not positively enjoined by the Torah, but is only an ethical obligation, the aim of which is to teach us the right and proper way. Possibly it belongs to the class of supererogatory practices that are optional, for which we will not be called to account nor be punished if we disregard them. And therefore our predecessors omitted to treat of it in a special work. A careful examination, however, by the light of Reason, Scripture and Tradition, of the question whether the Duties of the Heart are obligatory or not, convinced me that they indeed form the foundation of all the Precepts, and that if there is any shortcoming in their observance, no external duties whatever can be fulfilled.

Ateret Zekeinim On Providence and prophecy, composed while still a youth. Don Isaac b. Judah Abravanel (1437-1508), received a careful education and was a pupil of R. Joseph Hayyim, rabbi of Lisbon. Well versed in Talmudic literature and in the learning of his time, endowed with a clear and keen mind, and full of enthusiasm for Judaism, he devoted his early years to the study of Jewish religious philosophy, and when scarcely twenty years old wrote on the original form of the natural elements, on the most vital religious questions, on prophecy, etc. His political abilities also attracted attention while he was still young. He entered the service of King Alfonso V. of Portugal as treasurer, and soon won the confidence of his master. Notwithstanding his high position and the great wealth he had inherited from his father, his love for his afflicted brethren was unabated. When Arzilla, in Morocco, was taken by the Moors, and the Jewish captives were sold as slaves, he contributed largely to the funds needed to manumit them, and personally arranged for collections throughout Portugal. He also wrote to his learned and wealthy friend Jehiel, of Pisa, in behalf of the captives. After the death of Alfonso he was obliged to relinquish his office, having been accused by King John II. of connivance with the duke of Bragança, who had been executed on the charge of conspiracy. Don Isaac, warned in time, saved himself by a hasty flight to Castile (1483). His large fortune was confiscated by royal decree. At Toledo, his new home, he occupied himself at first with Biblical studies, and in the course of six months produced an extensive commentary on the books of Joshua, Judges, and Samuel. But shortly afterward he entered the service of the house of Castile. Together with his friend, the influential Don Abraham Senior, of Segovia, he undertook to farm the revenues and to supply provisions for the royal army, contracts that he carried out to the entire satisfaction of Queen Isabella. During the Moorish war Abravanel advanced considerable sums of money to the government. When the banishment of the Jews from Spain was decreed, he left nothing undone to induce the king to revoke the edict. In vain did he offer him 30,000 ducats ($68,400, nominal value). With his brethren in faith he left Spain and went to Naples, where, soon after, he entered the service of the king. For a short time he lived in peace undisturbed; but when the city was taken by the French, bereft of all his possessions, he followed the young king, Ferdinand, in 1495, to Messina; then went to Corfu; and in 1496 settled in Monopoli, and lastly (1503) in Venice, where his services were employed in negotiating a commercial treaty between Portugal and the Venetian republic (Zurita, "Historia del Rey Don Fernando el Católico," v. 342a).

 

Hebrew Description:   

חובת הלבבות ...הוגה מחדש עם רב העיון ... ונוספו בו שני לוחות. האחד בחלוקת שערו [!] הספר ופרקיו והשני להורות מקום הפסוקים ומאמרי רז"ל המובאים בספר ...

מעבר לשער: שיר למגיה. מתחיל: אנוש יזכה. בספר זה. ייחד אלדים חי. סימן: אברהם. עיין: אוצר השירה והפיוט, א,עמ' 294, מס' 6453.

דף ב,א: דברי המגיה: אברהם בכמה"ר דוד פרוונצאלי יצ"ו, ובסוף הספר "הערה" ממנו.

קולופון (דף צג,ב): נדפס זה החבור ... בכ"ה לחדש טבת בשנת שי"ט לפ"ק על ידי השותפים ה"ה הסופר כמ"ר מאיר יצ"ו בכמ"ר אפרים זצ"ל מפדובה ויעקב בכמ"ר נפתלי הכהן ז"ל מגאזולו ... בהקדמתו כותב המגיה: ולא התמהמהנו להביא העתקים רבים כתובים באצבע רבי הדיוק והכוון על פיהם ועל פי כתבם עם רב העיון ... ועוד ... החזרנו עטרה ליושנה ויחסנו הספר למחברו באמת ובצדקה לא כמשפט הדפוס הראשון [! ויניציאה ש"ח] אשר העתיקו בו שם המחבר למעתיקו ... גם ... עשינו בשם המעתיק ... ונודעו איפא שניהם מי המה מחבר הספר והמעתיקו. כן הודענו בשער שמם ... מהוצאה זו ואילך נדפסו ברוב ההוצאות ה"פתיחה" למתרגם בראש הספר והקדמתו הקצרה בראש השער השני (שער הבחינה). עיין: א"מ הברמן, לחקר ספר "חובות הלבבות" ונוסחאותיו העבריות - סיני, כרך כח, תשי"א, עמ' שיח, שכא-שכג.

עטרת זקנים חברו ... דון יצחק אבראבניאל ... מחקר (מתחלת הפרשה הנה אנכי שולח מלאך לפניך עד ויקהו לי תרומ' [שמות כג, כ-כד, יח]) ... עוד ... מה הם צורו' היסודות (אם הם האיכיות ראשונים או שניים או דבר אחר) ... בשנת כי אצק מים על צמא ונוזלים על י'ב'ש'ה' אצק רוחי על זרעך וברכתי על צאצאיך

דף א,ב-ב,א: הקדשת הספר אל ר' עשהאל ב"ר יצחק מריאיטי, "מקום כבודו בבולונייא", מאת ראובן ב"ר רפאל צרפתי מאורליאנס, שהביאו לדפוס. כותב, בין השאר: "ויט אלי חסד בעיני השרים ... שם האחד אליעזר ... ושם האחד מרדכי ... בני ... ר' טוביה פואה ... והמה עזרו אלי ... מלבד כל הטובות אשר הטיבו עמדי מיום נטיתי לבי לשרתם בהגהת הדפוס". אחר ההקדשה שיר, פותח: ליצחק מצחק בחורות ושיחות. אוצר השירה והפיוט, ג, עמ' 34, מס' 744.

חסר [4] דף: "צורות היסודות".

טופס על קלף נמצא באוקספורד, בספריית הבודליאנה. רוב הספר נכלל בפירוש ר' יצחק אברבנאל על התורה.

 

Reference:   

CD-NLI 0105753; EJ; JE; CD-NLI 0106701