Auction 100 – Important Hebrew Manuscripts and Books from the Victor (Avigdor) Klagsbald Collection
Tzror HaMor by Rabbi Avraham Saba – Kraków, 1595
Opening: $700
Estimate: $1,000 - $1,500
Sold for: $1,875
Including buyer's premium
Tzror HaMor, commentary on the Torah, following the peshat and kabbalistic approaches, by R. Avraham Saba, a Spanish exile. Kraków: Yitzchak son of Aharon Prostitz, 1595.
The author,
R. Avraham Saba (1440-1509), a rabbi, preacher and kabbalist at the time of the Spanish expulsion. Born in Castile, he was a disciple of R. Yitzchak de Leon. After the expulsion, he fled with his community to Guimarães (near Porto, Portugal). During the Portuguese persecutions of Jews in 1497, his two children were kidnapped and forcibly baptized. After he was jailed and tortured in Lisbon, he managed to escape to Fez, leaving his manuscripts behind in Portugal. He eventually reached Adrianople (Edirne), where he settled and rewrote his works. He passed away on a ship on his way to Italy in 1509, and was buried in Verona (his passing on the ship is recounted by the Chida in Shem HaGedolim, citing Divrei Yosef, according to whom R. Avraham Saba promised the captain that if he would be buried in a Jewish cemetery the storm would subside). His other works (most of which remained in manuscript and were lost) include: Eshkol HaKofer on the Books of Esther and Ruth; Tzror HaKesef on the laws of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and idolatry; Tzror HaChaim on Tractate Avot.
R. Avraham Saba (1440-1509), a rabbi, preacher and kabbalist at the time of the Spanish expulsion. Born in Castile, he was a disciple of R. Yitzchak de Leon. After the expulsion, he fled with his community to Guimarães (near Porto, Portugal). During the Portuguese persecutions of Jews in 1497, his two children were kidnapped and forcibly baptized. After he was jailed and tortured in Lisbon, he managed to escape to Fez, leaving his manuscripts behind in Portugal. He eventually reached Adrianople (Edirne), where he settled and rewrote his works. He passed away on a ship on his way to Italy in 1509, and was buried in Verona (his passing on the ship is recounted by the Chida in Shem HaGedolim, citing Divrei Yosef, according to whom R. Avraham Saba promised the captain that if he would be buried in a Jewish cemetery the storm would subside). His other works (most of which remained in manuscript and were lost) include: Eshkol HaKofer on the Books of Esther and Ruth; Tzror HaKesef on the laws of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and idolatry; Tzror HaChaim on Tractate Avot.
Ownership inscriptions and signatures on title page, in early Ashkenazic script. Poetic inscription with the acrostic "Eizek", dated "Wednesday, 28th Adar 1595". Signatures: "Naftali son of Yitzchak HaLevi… Tuesday, 4th Tevet 1628", "Yitzchak son of R. Moshe Naftali HaLevi"; "Avraham son of R. Moshe Naftali HaLevi"; "Aharon son of R. Avraham Moshe"; "Moshe son of R. Yehudah Segal Horowitz"; "Avraham Rintel…".
165, [1] leaves. 30.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Worming, affecting text. Small marginal tears to title page and several other leaves, partially repaired with paper. Large marginal open tear to top of last leaf, affecting text (the entire upper paragraph at the beginning of the colophon is missing), repaired with paper. New binding.
CB, no. 4301,4; Zedner, p. 33; Roest, p. 46.
Early Printed Books – Poland, Prague and Western Europe
Early Printed Books – Poland, Prague and Western Europe