Yosef Lekach [commentary to the Book of Esther, with text].

ASCHKENAZI, ELIEZER BEN ELIJAH HAROFÈ

Christopher Draconi

Cremona

1576

FIRST EDITION. Title within historiated woodcut architectural arch. Wider margins. Signed by censors at end.

Vinograd, Cremona 47.

Eliezer Aschkenazi (1512-85) held influential positions in widely scattered Jewish communities from Egypt, Cyprus and Italy to the major centers in Poland (Posen and Cracow), where he died. His Biblical exegesis is permeated with the contemporary rationalistic spirit of rabbinical scholarship. This edition of Yosef Lekach, was the last Hebrew book printed in Cremona, which for a little over twenty years was a center of Jewish learning and printing, amidst the rigid censorship of the Inquisition. See D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963) pp. 306-19. For an analysis of typographical variances found in this edition, see M. Benayahu, HaDephus Ha’Ivri Be’Cremona (1971) pp. 232-33.