Commentary (on the Rashi Commentary) - Venice, 1593 - A Composition by a Fake Author - Includes Illustrations and a ...

Commentary (on the Rashi Commentary) - Venice, 1593 - A Composition by a Fake Author - Includes Illustrations and a Map of the Land of Israel - Single Edition
Biurim - On Rashi’s commentary to the Torah, by Rabbi Natan Shapira - the Maharnash (one of the great sages of his generation, and a descendant of Rashi). Venice, 1593.
Before us is a unique and strange phenomenon in the history of the Hebrew printing press: the work is forged, i.e. it was not written by the Maharnash. To this day its genuine author is unknown!
Rabbi Natan Shapira printed his work “Imrei Shefer” in Krakow between the years 1590-1597. Meanwhile, in 1597, the book before us was printed under the name of the Maharnash. In the introduction to “Imrei Shefer” (Lublin, 1597), his son Rabbi Yitzchak Shapira clarifies that the work “Biurim” was not written by his father. Rabbi Yitzchak explains that people lacking fear of Heaven invented the commentary and attributed it to his father to increase their sales, “And when the books arrived…in this region it was proclaimed with the approbation of all the Rabbis and leaders of the countries that they should not be sold, and they will not be seen or found throughout these lands, and the money will be returned to anyone who bought them.”
The book contains several ilustrations: A sketch of Yaakov’s ladder (page 28), a large drawing of the menorah in the Tabernacle with all of its parts (page 85), a large sketch of the Land of Israel with all of its borders (page 150), an illustration of the bunch of grapes carried by the spies (page 129).
On the book’s title page is an ancient ownership inscription: “I bought this book…18th Sivan…says the young and small one Yaakov son of Gedaliah Ish Rothenburg”. Perhaps this is the father of Rabbi Gedaliah of Rothenburg, disciple and publisher of the teachings of the author of the “Sha’agat Aryeh”.
19.5 cm.
Condition: Good. Luxurious binding. Blemished title page, mainly restored. First leaf is torn with approximately half a leaf missing. Two leaves at the beginning of the book are missing (3, 8). Pages 105-108 were switched in the printing press. A restored tear on the last leaf with a number of words missing from the colophon.