Sha’ar HaShamayim [“The Gate of Heaven” - encyclopedic work on natural science, mathematics and astronomy].

Auction 94 | Thursday, June 17th, 2021 at 11:00am

Rare & Excellent Hebrew Printed Books: From the Library of Arthur A. Marx

Back to Catalogue Download Catalogue

<Previous Lot

/501

Next Lot>

Lot 172

GERSHON BEN SOLOMON OF ARLES.

Sha’ar HaShamayim [“The Gate of Heaven” - encyclopedic work on natural science, mathematics and astronomy].

<<First Edition.>> Printer’s device in form of Menorah on title (Yaari, Printers’ Marks, no. 14). ff. 64. Some staining, small paper repair on title, censor's signature on final leaf. Recent linen boards. Sm. 4to. Vinograd, Venice 329.

Venice: Meir Parenzo 1547

Est: $1,000 - $1,500

Little is known of the 13th-century author, Gershon ben Solomon from Arles in Provence. His Sha’ar HaShamayim, reflects the unique synthesis of Jewish and secular learning for which that part of France was famous. Through the Hebrew translations of Samuel ibn Tibbon and other gifted Provencal scholars, the Jews of Provence had at their disposal the extensive corpus of Aristotelian and Arabic learning. See M. Heller, The Sixteenth Century Hebrew Book, Vol. I, pp. 338-39.