Abudarham, commentary on blessings and prayers, and explanations and laws of prayer, by R. David Abudarham (Avudraham). [Ushbuna (Lisbon): Eliezer Toledano, 1489]. First edition. Incunabulum.
Printed in two columns, in "Rashi script" (Sephardic). The initial panels and titles are printed in large, square script. Diagrams of the Temple altar are printed on leaves [23] and [24].
On the margins of p. [44a] appears a handwritten addition, in Sephardic semi-cursive script (the inscription is faded and affected by trimming with loss), with a commentary on the blessing against the heretics ("VelaMeshumadim"), which does not appear in the main text of the book. This commentary on the blessing against heretics is also omitted in the manuscripts of Abudarham, and it survives only in a single manuscript (MS Turin A II 29), based on which it was published in the anthology Tzefunot by R. David Yitzchaki (see: Tzefunot, I [5789], 4, pp. 17-20). The text of the present addition is identical to what is published there.
Glosses and corrections in Sephardic script on leaf [96]. Censorship expurgations (some by scraping the words) and handwritten corrections to several leaves.
First edition of Abudarham, a foundational work of commentary on the prayers and their meanings. The original name of the book is "Commentary on the Blessings and Prayers", but the book is best known as Abudarham (Avudraham), after its author R. David Abudarham, a famous Spanish rabbi in the 14th century and one of the great rishonim. In his book, the author selected commentaries on prayers and related laws from the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, the writings of the Geonim and from writings of many early Torah scholars, including R. Elazar of Worms (the Rokeach), R. Asher of Lunel; the Ri Migash and others. The book contains, among other matters, the texts of prayers and various rare customs of Spanish Jewry, which are almost unknown from other sources. The work is divided into three general sections ("gates") – the first explaining the Shema, the second explaining the prayers, and the third explaining the blessings over commandments. The book also contains a detailed explanation of calendrical issues and the structure of the Jewish calendar (this part is missing in the present copy).
The author's name, Abudarham, has been explained in several ways. Some claim that the name "father of the dirham" (a medieval Islamic currency) indicates that the author came from a family of merchants or tax collectors. Another explanation has it that the "father of the dirham" is so called due to being the foremost liturgical commentator (as the Hebrew word "matbea" denotes both "coinage" and "prayer formula").
Abudarham has become one of the most important foundational texts on the rite and custom of prayers, and it is cited constantly by the poskim. The Noda BiYehudah writes in his approbation to the 1788 Prague edition of Abudarham: "The great virtue of the book of Abudarham is well-known; most of the customs in prayers, blessings, Kedushot and Havdalot are based on his book, and the Beit Yosef and acharonim in Orach Chaim cite him very often; it is a valuable and necessary book, since the acharonim cite his statements in brief…".
Incomplete copy: [148] leaves. Originally: [170] leaves. Missing 22 leaves. Collation (gatherings not marked): i5 (missing first five leaves, including illustrated frame on first leaf), ii-x8, xi6, xii7 (missing third leaf), xiii8, xiv7 (missing seventh leaf), xv6 (missing third and fourth leaf), xvi8, xvii3 (missing fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth leaf), xviii7 (missing first leaf), xix-xx8, xxi3 (missing last seven leaves). All the missing leaves are supplied in photocopy. 25.5 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains, including dark stains in several places. Tears, including many open tears (large tears along the margins to first leaves and other leaves), affecting text and headers of leaves, restored with paper filling (the entire book has been professionally restored, margins of leaves have been restored with paper filling). Worming in a few places, slightly affecting text, restored with paper filling. New leather binding.
The second book printed in Lisbon, a few months after the printing of the commentary of the Ramban on the Torah, in the press of Eliezer Toledano.
See: A.K. Offenberg, Hebrew Incunabula in Public Collections, Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1990, no. 1.
