(Manoello Giudeo). Sepher Machberoth Immanuel.
AUCTION 79 |
Thursday, November 15th,
2018 at 1:00 PM
The Valmadonna Trust Library: Further Selections from the Historic Collection. * Hebrew Printing in America. * Graphic & Ceremonial Art
Lot 62
IMMANUEL BEN SOLOMON OF ROME.
(Manoello Giudeo). Sepher Machberoth Immanuel.
Constantinople: Eliezer ben Gershom Soncino 1535
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
PRICE REALIZED $3,750
Sepher HaMachbaroth is the most important work of Immanuel ben Solomon of Rome (ca. 1261-1328), poet, scholar and author of both Hebrew and Italian texts. Combining poetry and prose on subjects as diverse as love, wine, and friendship, along with satires, epistles, elegies and religious poems, Sefer HaMachbaroth represents a unique example of the blending of traditional Jewish together with secular Italian literature that characterized much of the Jewish literary output during the Italian Renaissance. With his linguistic artistry and use of skillful wordplay, Immanuel sets a tone that is generally light-hearted and witty. Due to certain lewd sections, R. Joseph Karo famously forbade the reading of this text and consequently, a further edition did not appear for another two centuries.
According to Cecil Roth, Immanuel of Rome was “the most remarkable and the most important figure of the Renaissance period in the Jewish world.” See C. Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance (1959) pp. 89-10.