Shevet Yehudah [historiography].

Auction 98 | Thursday, June 16th, 2022 at 1:00pm
Fine Judaica: Rare Printed Books, Manuscripts, & Autograph Letters

Back to Catalogue

Lot 259
SOLOMON IBN VERGA.

Shevet Yehudah [historiography].

Title within typographical border. ff. 50. Browned, stained in places, title rehinged, worn with small loss on verso. Recent boards (London Beth Din copy). Sm 4to. Vinograd, Prague 184.

Prague: (Gershom ben Bezalel Katz) 1609

Est: $1,500 - $2,500
PRICE REALIZED $2,600
<<A SCARCE EDITION OF IBN VERGA’S CHRONICLE OF THE PERSECUTIONS SUFFERED BY THE JEWS.>> “One of the outstanding achievements of the Hebrew literature of the Renaissance.” (EJ, VIII col. 1204). A chronicle of Jewish persecution from the destruction of the Second Temple until the Author’s own day, including an account of the Expulsion from Spain. Within ibn Verga’s account, lies a melancholy tone in his critique of his fellow-Jews and the place Gentile society has created for the Jew. “Of all the historical works [of the sixteenth century], ibn Verga’s Shevet Yehudah was to enjoy the widest popularity.” See Y.H. Yerushalmi, Clio and the Jews: Reflections on Jewish Historiography in the Sixteenth Century in: American Academy of Jewish Research, Jubilee Volume (1980) pp. 607-38 and reprinted in: D.B. Ruderman (Ed.) Essential Papers on Jewish Culture in Renaissance and Baroque Italy (1992) pp. 191-218. See also, idem. The Lisbon Massacre of 1506 and the Royal Image in the Shebet Yehudah, Hebrew Union College Annual, Supplement No. 1 (1976).