Two Italian Treatises, Including a Polemical Work [17th-19th century]

The first treatise is a 17th-18th-century fragment of part one of an anonymous polemical work written in three parts. The first part, Shalosh Averot, Shalosh Orot, is a refutation of Christian interpretations of the Bible. A complete copy of the first part, in another hand, is found in New York, JTSA ms. 2212. A manuscript of the second part, called Gilui Arayot is found in the Italian Synagogue in Jerusalem, ms. 43. In the second part the author notes the date 1660. In the first part he cites Kanfei Yonah, his book on the principles of the Torah. The author quotes sources in Italian, Latin, and French. The author provides a list of all the nations and people in the world (probably drawn from another geography book) and on fol. 4r, he lists many places in Mexico and South America, but none in North America.

The second treatise is a 19th-century copy of Leshon Limmudim, a grammatical treatise by Solomon ben Abba Mari of Lunel. Solomon ben Abba Mari was the first to introduce the seven forms of conjugation of Hebrew verbs (binyanim) and was blind when he composed this work. On fols. 17v-20r is an introduction to grammar by Benjamin ben Judah Bozecco printed at the beginning of Kimhi’s Mahalakh Shevilei ha-Daat.  This text also appears in Montefiore ms. 410.

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

Provenance

Vol. 1: Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 376).

Vol. 2: Samuel David Luzzatto — Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 181, notes on front flyleaf, with detailed bibliographical references).

Physical Description

Vol. 1: 31 leaves on paper (22 blank), 7 ¼ x 5 3/8 inches; 185 x 137 mm, written in Italian semi-cursive script in brown ink; first leaf soiled and stained, library stamp on first and last leaves. Wrappers; soiled.

Vol. 2: 20 leaves on paper, 7 5/8 x 6 inches; 194 x 153 mm, faintly ruled in ink, written in a nineteenth-century Italian semi-cursive script in black ink; dampstained along bottom throughout, library stamp on first and last leaves. Marbled wrappers; spine split.

Literature

Vol. 1: Hirschfeld (ms. no. 452); A. Marx, “The Polemical Manuscripts in the Library Of The Jewish Theological Seminary" in Studies...in Memory of A.S. Freidus, (New York, 1929), p. 258-259, no. 45.

Vol. 2: Hirschfeld (ms. no. 407); H. Hirschfeld, Literary History of Hebrew Grammarians and Lexicographers Accompanied by Unpublished Texts, (1926), pp. 94-95 and p. 109, where a short excerpt form the introduction is printed; a facsimile edition in 90 copies was privately published in 1998 from Parma ms. 2776, with an introduction by Esther Goldenberg.