Commentary to the Pentateuch

SOLOMON BEN ISAAC OF TROYES (RASH”I).

Abraham ben Isaac ben Garton

Reggio di Calabria

1475

SECOND EDITION. Cursive Sephardi type (“Rashi letter”). See facsimile in EJ, Vol. XV, col. 1483, fig. 1

Vinograd, Reggio di Calabria 1; Goff 93; Offenberg 112; Steinschneider 6927-1; Thes. A1; Wineman Cat. 8; not in Goldstein

SINGLE LEAF OF THE EARLIEST DATED HEBREW PRINTED BOOK: PERHAPS THE MOST ELUSIVE OF HEBREW INCUNABULA. Only one copy, incomplete at that, is extant (missing 2 or 3 first leaves). This is presently in the De Rossi Collection, Bibliotheca Palatina, Parma. Other than that, only the Jewish Theological Seminary Library possesses a fragment of 2 leaves. Thus the present fragment is one of just three known. This Rash”i was the only Hebrew book printed in Reggio di Calabria, a small town in the south of Italy. Makor of Jerusalem issued a limited facsimile edition of the Reggio di Calabria Rash”i. Our fragment is leaf 11. Solomon ben Isaac of Troyes or Rash”i (1040-1105) is hallowed in Jewish tradition as the greatest Biblical exegete of all time. Tradition has assigned him the title “Parshandatha” (“Interpreter of the Law”), a play on Esther 9:7. Centuries of Jewish schoolchildren were raised on Rashi's commentary to the Pentateuch. Untold volumes of supercommentaries have been written, and will continue to be written, in an attempt to plumb the depths of Rashi's inimitable style, at once parsimonious and eloquent.