Beschreibung:

IBN YACHYA, DAVID BEN SOLOMON. Leshon Limmudim [a Hebrew grammar] with Shekel ha-kodesh [an anonymous work on Hebrew metre, prosody and rhetorics]. Constantinople, David & Samuel Ibn Nachmias, 1506. [60] leaves; the last 8 leaves include Shekel ha-Kodesh with the colophon at the last page, decorative metal cut border on opening page with beautiful traceries and charming animal figures, extensive manuscript annotations in Hebrew throughout. 4to, 200 x 143 mm. (7 7/8 x 5 5/8 in.), rebound in half vellum; margins trimmed, affecting some of the notations and upper and inner margin of the border on opening page, some browning and staining. FIRST EDITION. Signed by censor 1590. Vinograd, Constantinople 10; Yaari, Constantinople 4; Steinschneider 4812/2 and Bibliographisches Handbuch 983; Cowley p. 155 describes imperfect copy; Zedner p. 203; Roest 301 (copy lacking title page); Yudlov, Ginzei Yisrael 1241 (title-page damaged); Deinhard, Atikot Yehuda p. 24; Sassoon sale of highly important Hebrew Printed books, 30th June 1970 lot 57 (incomplete copy lacking last 8 leaves); For the history of the border see: Cecil Roth (editor), Jewish Art pp. 457-463; Brad Sabin Hill, Hebraica from the Valmadonna Trust 16. The brothers David and Samuel Ibn Nachmias, Jewish exiles from Spain, set up the first Hebrew printing press in Constantinople at 1493. It was also the first printing press in any language in the Ottoman Empire. Leshon Limmudim was one of the first books printed by them. The beautifully executed metal cut border around the opening page of this book is ascribed to the silver-smith, engraver and type-cutter Alfonso Fernandez de Cordoba, it was first used in a Latin book the Saragossan Catholic prayer-book of 1486, and in a Hebrew Pentateuch printed c. 1487-88, both published by Zalmati at Hijar. It was the first border to be used in any Hebrew printed book. It was apparently later taken to Portugal and was used in the first two books printed by Eleazar Toledano at Lisabon in 1489. After the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, it was brought to Constantinople, and there employed in various books produced by the Ibn Nachmias brothers between 1505 and 1509.