MOYSES BEN NAHMAN. PERUSCH-Ha-Tora [Comentário sobre o Pentateuco]. [Lisboa]. [1489].

MOYSES BEN NAHMAN. PERUSCH-Ha-Tora [Comentário sobre o Pentateuco]. [Lisboa]. [1489].
MOYSES BEN NAHMAN
PERUSCH-Ha-Tora [Comentário sobre o Pentateuco]. [Lisboa]: [Rabi Elieses Toledano], [1489].

[125 de 300] ff.; 300 mm.

VERY RARE fragment of one of the first incunabula printed in Portugal. Printed by one of the three Hebrew printers existing in Portugal (Lisbon, Faro and Leiria, cf. D. Manuel). It seems that Rabbi Elieser had a printing press in the capital between 1489 and 1492 and that this was the first work to come out of his presses. We transcribe what is found in the Portuguese General Bibliography, the text that concerns the typographer: «Rabbi Elieser Toledano is to his co-religionists Gacon and the Ortas like Valentim Fernandes to the other printers who worked in Portugal in the 15th century: greater technical perfection and a higher number of impressions. The activity of his workshop, whose material appears, in large part, to come from Hijar's Hebrew press — which ended its production in 1490 — lasted four years, from 1489 to 1492, the latter date corresponding exactly to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. [...] Haebler attributes the closure of the workshop to its transfer to Constantinople. What seems beyond doubt is that Rabbi Elieser was an editor, not a master printer; and more than editor, patron, whose name shines in the colophon of magnificent and artistic editions, leaving his fame almost erased by the names of his most direct collaborators, perhaps the true technicians of the remote and first typographic workshop in Lisbon: Rabi Zorba, Zacheo, son of Rabbi Elieser himself, and Moses, son of Semtob, a printer who later, after being honored, practiced his profession in Constantinople or Naples.” About Moises Ben Nahman, born in Gerona in 1194 and died in Palestine, around 1270. He studied medicine and philosophy, having composed several works, this being his last, considered his masterpiece. «In 1263, in view of the controversy that took place in Barcelona, in the presence of King Jayme of Aragon, between Moyses Ben Nahman — he was then Rabbi Mór of Catalonia —, and Pablo Christiani, over religious matters, Moyses was forced to leave Catalonia: he passed about three years in Castile or in the south of France, and in 1267 he emigrated to Palestine, settling in Acre after a short stay in Jerusalem», where he would die [D. Manuel]. In addition to the detailed description given to us by D. Manuel [D. Manuel, vol. 1, p. 23], see General Bibliography, v. 1, no. two; Haebler, 458, Hain, 11670. A digital copy of the copy existing at the National Library is also available on the website of the National Digital Library at http://purl.pt/16559/4 [accessed on 01.09.2013, 14:54 ]