Ben ha-Melekh ve-ha-Nazir, Abraham ha-Levi Ibn Hasdai, [17th-18th century]

Ben ha-Melekh ve-ha-Nazir (The Prince and the Hermit) is a Hebrew version of an original Hindu story. The Latin version is known as Barlaam et Josaphat. This Hebrew version was translated from the Arabic by Abraham ha-Levi ibn Hasdai. It is a typical example of lndian wisdom literature, in which the stories are told by a wise man as he tutors a young prince. In the story, Josaphat, is sent by his father to an island in an effort to avert the fulfillment of a prophecy that he would become a Christian monk. When the prince discovers the reason for his confinement, he implores his father to allow him to return to the mainland. The king agrees. A monk, Barlaam, who comes disguised as a merchant (monks being prohibited in the land) gains access to the prince, and gradually teaches him to realize the vanity of this world and the advantages of the ascetic life. The poems in the text are vocalized. This manuscript was copied from the edition printed in Mantua, 1557, by the same scribe who copied Montefiore ms. 502.

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

Physical Description

98 leaves on paper, 6 5/8 x 4 3/8 inches; 170 x 112 mm, written in Sephardic semi-cursive script, old foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil; light marginal soiling and staining, ink corrosion in running headlines and severe in last six leaves, dampstaining in upper outer corner of last third of book, library stamps on first and last pages. Nineteenth-century quarter cloth.

Literature

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 277)