Pirkei Rabbi Eliezer. Constantinople: Yehudah Sason, 1514. First edition. Elaborate copy from the collection of the Baron de Rothschild.
Rare, first edition of Pirkei Rabbi Eliezer, a midrashic work containing 54 chapters with detailed elaborations of Biblical stories, attributed to the tanna R. Eliezer son of Hyrcanus. R. David Luria, author of a commentary on the work, writes that this book forms the basis for many stories that are not mentioned explicitly in the Written Torah, but were an accepted part of the Oral Torah.
Title page decorated with fine woodcut frame.
Colophon on last leaf: "The work was completed… by Yehudah son of R. Yosef Sason on Tuesday, 13th Iyar… [1514], in Constantinople".
On title page and below colophon appears the printer's device of Yehudah Sason – an erect white lion against a black background, in a square frame (see: Yaari, Diglei HaMadpisim HaIvriyim, Jerusalem, 1944, pp. 7, 126, no. 8).
Elaborate leather binding signed: "René Aussourd" (1884-1966), a famous French bookbinder.
The present copy originated from the collection of the Rothschild family. Enclosed is a handwritten letter of authenticity from the Parisian antiquarian Christian Galantaris, attesting that this copy's provenance is from the above-mentioned collection.
Interestingly, the preface to the edition of Pirkei Rabbi Eliezer printed with the commentary of R. David Luria (Warsaw, 1884) contains a "commentary on a passage in Pirkei Rabbi Eliezer" by Baron Amschel Mayer von Rothschild, appended by the publisher – R. Shmuel Luria.
Some censorship expurgations.
On last leaf, signature of censor Giovanni Domenico Carretto, from 1617.
[44] leaves. 19.5 cm. Gilt edges. Good condition. Minor stains. Small marginal open tears to title page and several other leaves, repaired with paper filling. Light worming. Elaborate leather binding. Placed in matching slipcase.
Typographical variants on the verso of the title page are known to exist. See: Yitzchak Rivkind, Dikdukei Sefarim, "Kiryat Sefer", IV, 1927-1928, p. 276, no. 24 (the present copy differs from the copy appearing in the NLI catalog).
Exceptionally rare edition.
