Neyar ha-Yamim and Other Scientific Works, Solomon Aviad Sar Shalom Basilea, [Italy, ca. 1696]

Fols. 1r-80v: Neyar ha-Yamim, an unpublished treatise on astronomy by Solomon Aviad Sar Shalom Basilea. Extant in several manuscripts.

Fols. 81r-112v: Luhot ha-Poel, astronomical tables by Jacob ben David ben Yom Tov (Bonjorn) ha-Poel Bonet.

Fols. 113r-124v: Mordecai Finzi's table for half-daylight at latitude 44o N.

Fols. 125r-130v: Notes on the adjustment of the Hebrew and Christian calendars through the use of leap years (“bisestili”). On fols. 126v-129v the scribe calculated the number of years that had elapsed until his time (5456=1696) from the Creation, the Flood, etc. until the expulsion from Spain in 1492.

Fols. 131r-132v: On calculating the date of Easter (in Hebrew).

Fols. 136r -164v: Notes on the calendar written in Italian.

Solomon Aviad Sar Shalom Basilea (ca. 1680–1749), was an Italian rabbi and kabbalist. In his youth he studied geometry and astronomy and wrote a treatise on the calendar as well as a commentary on Euclid's Elements. Solomon became the rabbi of Mantua in 1729. His most important work, Emunat Hakhamim (Mantua, 1730) was intended to emphasize the continuity in Jewish tradition of the mystic significance of the Torah. In 1733 he was accused by the Inquisition of having mocked Catholicism and of possessing unexpurgated Hebrew works, and was imprisoned for a year. He was subsequently confined to his house and finally to the borders of the ghetto.

Jacob Bonet, a fourteenth-century Spanish astronomer, was the author of astronomical tables prepared at Perpignan in 1361. These tables enjoyed a great reputation and were translated into Latin in the fifteenth century. They were also the subject of many Hebrew commentaries.

Mordecai (Angelo) ben Abraham Finzi (d. 1476), was a scientist, physician, and banker, who lived in Bologna and Mantua. He was known for his mathematical and astronomical works, which included Luhot, (tables on the length of days) He also translated into Hebrew various works on astronomy and geometry and wrote commentaries on some of them.

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

Physical Description

172 leaves on paper (8 blank), 11 ½ x 7 ¾ inches; 290 x 200 mm, written in Italian semi-cursive script in brown ink, with numerous tables and charts, extra wide margins, original foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil; one loose folio inserted after fol. 118, fols. 78-80, 119-124, 130, 133-135, 145-147, 157 are blank, initial folio soiled, minor scattered stains, overall in fine condition. Early stiff vellum; upper portion of front cover stained.

Literature

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 428); B. Levy, Planets Potions and Parchments: Scientifica Hebraica from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Eighteenth Century (Montreal, 1990), p. 26; for information on Luhot ha-Poel, see J. Chabas, "The astronomical tables of Jacob ben David Bonjorn," in Archive for History of Exact Sciences, xlii (1991), pp. 279-314; on Finzi’s scientific writings and this table, see Y.T. Langermann, in Italia, 7 (1988), pp. 7-44