SEFER HOVOT HA-LEVAVOT, RABBI BAHYA IBN PAQUDA, AND SEFER TIKKUN MIDDOT HA-NEFESH, RABBI SOLOMON IBN GABIROL, ETHICAL TREATISES TRANSLATED BY RABBI JUDAH IBN TIBBON, CONSTANTINOPLE: MOSES PARNAS FOR ISAAC BEN HAYYIM HAZZAN, 1550

The first and third editions of two influential works of Jewish ethics.

Rabbi Bahya Ibn Paquda was an eleventh-century Sephardic philosopher whose major work of ethics, written originally in Judeo-Arabic around 1080, was translated into Hebrew in 1161 by Rabbi Judah Ibn Tibbon as Hovot ha-levavot (Duties of the Heart[s]). Since that time, it has exerted enormous influence on Jewish pietistic literature and has become a staple of moralistic education. The first two editions appeared in Naples (1489) and Venice (1548) but were, according to Isaac ben Hayyim Hazzan, the publisher of the present imprint, “full of errors and lacunae.” He therefore took it upon himself to reissue the book based on a manuscript edited using an autograph of Ibn Tibbon’s. One feature appearing here for the first time is Ibn Tibbon’s full introduction to the book. At the end of the volume, Hazzan appended Rabbi Solomon Ibn Gabirol’s (ca. 1021-ca. 1057) Sefer tikkun middot ha-nefesh, another ethical treatise also originally written in Judeo-Arabic around 1045 and subsequently translated by Ibn Tibbon in 1167. The present printing represents the first edition of this latter work, which would go on to be reissued several times either independently or as part of Ibn Gabirol’s Goren nakhon.