A 500-year-old edition of Moses ben Maimon (also known as Maimonides or by his Hebrew acronym Rambam)’s “Guide for the Perplexed” is going to be auctioned at a starting price of $1 million on Tuesday.

The “Guide for the Perplexed” is one of the fundamental works by Maimonides, who lived in the 12th century between Spain, Morocco, and Egypt, and is considered one of the greatest Torah scholars of all time.

The book was originally written in Judeo-Arabic and translated into Hebrew shortly after. Addressing the gap between Torah study and Aristotelian philosophy, the work was highly influential among non-Jewish thinkers.

The volume, which will be auctioned by the Jerusalem-based Kedem Auction House, combines parts from two incunables, a term used for the very first books printed after the invention of the printing press, prior to 1500.

Experts believe that the two copies were printed in Rome around 1473-1475, marking the very first printed edition of the work.

“Incunables printed in Hebrew characters are very rare,” Kedem CEO Angelo Piattelli, a book and Judaica expert, told The Times of Israel over the telephone. “We only know about 120-130 Hebrew incunables in the world, some of which are unique copies or fragments.”

Piattelli explained that many Hebrew incunables were printed in Italy, and they were at times quite rudimentary compared to later printed books, often lacking a title page, a printing year, or page numbers.

“The earliest printed Hebrew book carrying a date was a Torah commentary by [Jewish scholar] Rashi printed in Reggio Calabria in 1475,” he said. “However, there are some books whose colophon does not specify where and when the book was printed, but scholars agree that they were printed in Rome between 1469 and 1475.”

Those works, a total of eight, include the two copies of the “Guide for the Perplexed,” as well as two Torah commentaries by Rashi and 13th-century scholar Moses ben Nachman (also known as Nachmanides or Ramban).

According to Piattelli, the assessment of their dating and provenance was based on comparisons between those books and non-Jewish books printed in Rome during those years.

“These eight books have very similar technical features, the same paper, the same fascicle arrangement of the pages, and more,” he said.

They were also documented by Italian bishop and theologian Bernardo de’ Rossi (1468–1527) as printed “before 1480.”

In addition, some documents dating to around 1480 refer to Jewish printing companies in Rome at that time, further confirming the business’s existence.

The “Guide for the Perplexed” incunables were part of the collections of two 20th-century iconic German Jewish publishers and entrepreneurs who left the country to flee persecution ahead of the Second World War, Zalman Schocken and Felix Guggenheim. In recent years, the artifacts were acquired by Swiss collector David Jeselsohn, who combined them into a complete book and restored it, including adding a 15th-century binding in wood and leather.

An independent book expert who spoke to The Times of Israel but did not wish his name to be disclosed confirmed the details provided by the auction house, but questioned the decision to merge two copies of the book into one.

The “Guide for the Perplexed” is currently in Zurich, and according to Kedem’s estimate, might sell for more than the opening price and reach $2-3 million.

Two 17th-century, richly-illustrated, handwritten Esther scrolls and a 16th-century illustrated Passover haggadah will also be auctioned on Tuesday.

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