Lot 63
Dikdukei Rashi - Riva Di Trento, 1560 - Handsome Copy
Sefer Dikdukei Rashi, super commentary to Rashi on the Pentateuch. Riva di Trento, 1560. First edition.
In the preface, the publisher, Dr. Jacob Marcaria states that since R. Joseph Ottolenghi was about to issue a compendium of explanations by R. Elijah Mizrahi, the present work is printed to serve a similar purpose.
This work is anonymous. There are those who attribute it to R. Joseph Ottolenghi, Rosh Yeshiva of Cremona. (See Yodea Sefer, p. 72, item 402). The Bibliography of the Hebrew book posits that the style of the preface implies that R. Jacob Marcaria himself was the author of the work. It suggests that in the process of publishing the abbreviation of the commentary of R. Elijah Mizrahi (which was authored by R. Joseph Ottolenghi), R. Jacob composed this work on the grammatical aspects of Rashi's commentary.
However, these are those who attribute the volume's authorship to R. Eliyahu Bachur (Elia Levita). See the introduction of Yaakov Shlomo Biegeleisen to the Artscroll-Mesorah edition of the volume (New York, 1988), which states that the library of the Talmud Torah in Livorno contains a copy with a handwritten note on the flyleaf that the author is "the great grammarian R. Eliyahu Halevi Ashkenazi", who wrote in his Sefer Habachur (article 3, end of principle 11), "I have already begun to prepare another volume in which I will elucidate all the words of Rashi that discuss Biblical grammar…" (A copy of this note appears in the Artscroll edition of this volume).
48 leaves. 21 cm. High-quality light paper. Good condition. Stains. Final pages with dark stains. New elaborate leather binding. Bookplate.
Provenance: Toaff family collection.
