Even Bohan, Shem Tov ben Isaac Ibn Shaprut, [18th-19th century]

Even Bohan, a polemical work by Shem Tov ben Isaac ibn Shaprut. This version includes sixteen chapters. Chapter thirteen contains a Hebrew translation of the New Testament book of Matthew. On the final folio the scribe notes that the exemplar he was copying from was not complete but that he was privileged to see a manuscript of this same work in the library of the “Duke Toscani of Florence.” In fact, there is very little missing from the present copy.

Sotheby’s is grateful to Menahem Schmelzer z”l and Benjamin Richler for cataloguing this manuscript.

Provenance

Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 160)

Physical Description

88 leaves on paper, 11 5/8 x 8 ¼ inches; 295 x 210 mm, written in Rashi-style script in brown ink, leaves ruled, catchwords, original foliation in Hebrew in ink, modern foliation in pencil; early repairs to long tears on fol. 4, gutters of fols. 4-6 strengthened, occasional spotting. Brown cloth, calf spine; cloth stained, spine wormed.

Literature

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 286); on the different redactions of Even Bohan see N. E. Frimer and D. Schwartz,  The Life and Thought of Shem Tov ibn Shaprut (Jerusalem, 1992, in Hebrew), pp. 23-55. The first chapter was edited from other manuscripts by J-V Niclós, Shem Tob ibn Shaprut: La Piedra de Toque (Madrid, 1997)