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LOT 8:
Reishith Chochmah [“Beginning of Wisdom” - Zoharic-based ethics]. First Edition, Venice, 1579. Antique marginalia. ...
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Reishith Chochmah [“Beginning of Wisdom” - Zoharic-based ethics]. First Edition, Venice, 1579. Antique marginalia. Lacking copy.
By Rabbi Elijah De Vidas.
Venice: Giovanni di Gara 1579. Rare First Edition of a Classic of Ethics.
Vinograd, Venice 642.
Antique marginalia in old Italian hand.
Lacking copy, present are 4-8, 1-187 out of 8, 421, [32] pages.
Good condition, some pages at end not bound in the right order, age stains, first page detached, antique binding.
Rabbi Elijah de Vidas (1518–87) was a disciple of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, and part of the select group of Kabbalists active in Safed during its golden age of mysticism in the late 16th century. His work, Reishith Chochmah, describes Kabbalistic concepts in easily understood terms, and intersperses them with more general Aggadic and moralistic ideas. Thanks to its user-friendly approach, Reishith Chochmah has become a popular classic within ethical literature, thus broadly disseminating mystical ideas amongst the wider public.
