Obj. ID: 39058
Jewish printed books Yemei Temimin by Menachem Noviyera, Venice, 1753
This text was prepared by William Gross:
Only edition of this eulogy for R. Raphael Nathan ben Ezrieli Joel Pincherle and his son R. Ezekiel Aaron Hayyim Pincherle by R. Menahem ben Isaac Navarra. The title page has an attractive pillared frame and states that it is Yemai Temimim (unblemished, perfect days) of the “two great lights” (Genesis 1:16) who gave light through their Torah to the land and its inhabitants. It states that “‘their days were in prosperity, and their years in pleasures’ (Job 36:11). Together they were ‘pure and upright’” (Job 8:6). It is dated Rosh Hodesh Elul, the year being given with the verse “stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today” (Exodus 14:13). There is an introduction in rabbinic letters and then the text in a single column in square letters. The eulogy is poetical in style. Foliation is in error. The work was financed by R. Zadok ben Meir ha-Levi of Frankfurt am Main, bookseller.
R. Menahem ben Isaac Navarra (Noveirra) was an Italian rabbi of Verona and poet of the eighteenth century. He was a grandson of R. Hezekiah Mordecai Basan. His three responsa are appended to his grandfather's "Pene Yizhak," which he published in Mantua in 1744. A copy of his "Derek Haskel" (ib. 1756), rules and regulations for the establishment of a free school, with a preface, is preserved in the British Museum, with his "Hanukkat ha-Bayit" (ib. 1759), on the dedication of a new Spanish synagogue in Verona. He died suddenly in the synagogue of Verona on a Friday evening while chanting "Lekah Dodi."
Two eulogies and biographies of two Rabbis, father and son, who died at at the same time. Biographies from this era are rare.
The Bragadin press was established in Venice in 1550 by Alvise Bragadin. This press continued as one of Venice’s leading Hebrew print-shops, issuing Hebrew titles in the 18th C under several generations of Bragadins (the last of whom was Alvise III). In the last decades of the The Seventeenth Century Hebrew Book, when this book was published, only the family name, Bragadin, or Nella Stamparia Bragadina appears on the title pages. Throughout the years, the output of the Bragadini press was considerable, and covered the gamut of Hebrew works. The press was somewhat unusual, however, in that the Bragadins themselves did not always take an active role in their printing-house, leaving its operation to other printers, and lending their name to other presses.