Tzeror Hachaim. De Termino Vitae.

AUCTION 12 | Tuesday, March 13th, 2001 at 1:00
Important Hebrew Printed Books and Manuscripts From the Library of the London Beth Din

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Lot 204
MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL.

Tzeror Hachaim. De Termino Vitae.

Contemporary marginalia. pp.(16), 237,(46). Light stains. Contemporary sheep. 12mo Coppenhagen 211; Silva Rosa 35

Amsterdam: By the Author 1639

Est: $1,500 - $2,000
PRICE REALIZED $1,800
A discussion whether death is brought on by natural causes or divinely orrdained. The Dutch intellectual Jan van Beverwyck had opened the discussion in his work Epistolica Quaestio de Vitae Termino, fatali an mobili (Dordrecht, 1634). Our own work, Menasseh's response, argues, based on Jewish sources, that the span of life is not predetermined by the Deity but depends on constitutional, temperamental, and climatic influences.“ The book concludes with Carmen Intellectuale, a panegyric in honor of Menasseh by Jacob Rosales of Hamburg. Of all Menasseh’s Latin works, this was the most successful.” Cecil Roth, A Life of Menasseh ben Israel (Philadelphia,1945), pp. 94-95.