Lev Avot – Tractate Avot with commentaries of Rashi and R. Shlomo son of R. Yitzchak HaLevi. Salonika: Yosef son of Yitzchak Yaavetz, 1565. First edition.

The author, R. Shlomo HaLevi the Elder son of R. Yitzchak (1532-1600), one of the Jews expelled from Portugal, Rabbi of Salonika and eminent in his generation. His printed works include: Divrei Shlomo (Venice, 1596), Lechem Shlomo (Venice, 1597), Cheshek Shlomo (Salonika, 1600).

In his introduction, the author recounts that after he completed an early manuscript draft of the work, he corrected it about a decade later: "For I authored this work in my youth, and I completed it on Erev Shavuot 1553, the very day I betrothed my beloved wife, as you will discover and see from the first version, and it was also on that day that I sang and recited to her metrical poems about this work… Afterwards… I corrected it again… While I was twenty-one years old in the first version, now upon completing it for a second time I am thirty-one years old…" (p. 2a).

128 leaves. 19.5 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains, including dampstains. Worming, slightly affecting text. New leather binding.

CB, no. 6944,3; no. 1442; Zedner, p. 551.