SEFER ZEVAH PESAH (PASSOVER HAGGADAH WITH COMMENTARY), DON ISAAC ABRABANEL, [CONSTANTINOPLE: DAVID AND SAMUEL IBN NAHMIAS, 1505]

The first printed commentary on the Passover Haggadah.

In early 1496, Abrabanel completed Sefer zevah pesah, a commentary on the Passover Haggadah in which the author used the paradigm of the redemption of the Israelites from Egypt to address his concerns with the calamities that had befallen his own generation of Spanish exiles. The commentary is lengthy, deep, and thorough but eminently readable. In his introductory remarks, Abrabanel poses one hundred questions which he proposes to answer at length in the rest of the book. While some of his replies address the text directly, in many cases he holds forth on a subject at great length even in the absence of a direct textual connection. The commentary thus became an important discourse in its own right. It has proven to be of enduring popularity and has often been reprinted.

Sefer zevah pesah was brought to press together with Abrabanel’s Sefer rosh amanah (a philosophical tract; see lot 205) and Sefer nahalat avot (a commentary on Pirkei avot). The ornamental border printed on the “title pages” of each of these books was originally designed by Alfonso Fernandez de Cordoba but subsequently became the property of Eliezer ben Abraham Alantansi in Híjar and then of Eliezer ben Judah Toledano in Lisbon (see lot 56) before passing to the Ibn Nahmias brothers in Constantinople.