Midrash Soḥer Ṭov

All notes by Chaim Meiselman: Haskamot from Avraham-Dov Auerbach of Homel, written in Polonne and dated Friday 15 Sivan 1788; Tsvi-Hirsh b. Naftali of Ternopil, written on the same date. On l. 93 v., the text of the Midrash Tehillim ends and a new mini-tract opens - Perush Alfa-Beta, ascribed here to Mattitya b. Mosheh ha-Yitshari, a Provençal-Spanish writer of the 14th century. This is a quasi-philosophical work on the formation and use of the Hebrew alphabet. This imprint is among the early imprints for Volhynia and generally to the Pale of Settlement. It is rare. Previous to this edition, the Midrash Tehillim was printed at Berdichyv in 1787. Title page features layers of ornaments around text. Dedication in Polish (via Hebrew charachters): "jaśnie wielmożni Adam i Jozefa z Księżna Lubomirski ... brygadierowi wojska Polskie, y.r.h. (Yarum Hodo - Praised is His Highness, Heb.)"; this is a dedication to a member of the Lubomirski nobility in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It perhaps is referring to Józef Alexander Lubomirski (1751-1817). The significance of this dedication is that a year after print (1795), the Commonwealth collapsed with the Third Partition of Poland.