Or Hachaim. ff.(28). * Yesod Ha’emunah. ff.(16). * Ma’amar Ha’achduth. ff.(16) [Philosophical polemic]

AUCTION 8 | Tuesday, November 16th, 1999 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art

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Lot 544

YA’AVETZ, JOSEPH

Or Hachaim. ff.(28). * Yesod Ha’emunah. ff.(16). * Ma’amar Ha’achduth. ff.(16) [Philosophical polemic]

Together works in three volumes. FIRST EDITION. Each with a separate title set within architectural arch with the printer’s device of an armillary sphere resting on a scroll a verse from Psalm 130:5 (illustrated EJ, XIII col. 1094 no. 7). Device repeated at end of each treatise Trace wormed in margins, expertly repaired, extreme upper corner of opening leaf of first work repaired. Modern uniform blind-tooled chestnut calf. Slip-case. Sm.4to Vinograd, Ferrara 23,25,27; Mehlman 1205; not in Adams

Ferrara: Abraham ibn Usque 1554

Est: $8,000 - $10,000

PRICE REALIZED $12,000

Three Philosophical Treatises Issued Together. Exceptionally Rare, Not Appeared at Auction for More Than Fifty Years. The author was among those expelled from Spain, and for his remaining years (d.1507) sought in his writings to find meaning in the catastrophe that had befallen Spanish Jewry. These treatises assert that philosophical rationalism was the cause whereby so many Spanish Jews chose to embrace the Church rather than a life in exile. Ya’avetz blames a distorted version of Maimonidean intellectualism leading to rationalism, and thus a weakening of religious observance and religious sacrifice