The Inquisition and Judaism. A Sermon addressed to Jewish Martyrs, on the occation of an Auto da Fe at Lisbon, 1705. By the Archbishop of Cranganor. Also a Reply to the Sermon, by Carlos Vero. Translated by Moses Mocatta

AUCTION 16 | Tuesday, June 25th, 2002 at 1:00
Important Hebrew Printed Books and Manuscripts From the Library of the London Beth Din

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Lot 142
(INQUISITION)

The Inquisition and Judaism. A Sermon addressed to Jewish Martyrs, on the occation of an Auto da Fe at Lisbon, 1705. By the Archbishop of Cranganor. Also a Reply to the Sermon, by Carlos Vero. Translated by Moses Mocatta

FIRST EDITION. Translated into English from the original Portuguese and Spanish pp.xiv,191. Few light stains in places. Original gilt-titled blind-tooled green cloth, gently rubbed at edges. 8vo

London: J. Wertheimer & Co 1845

Est: $500 - $700
PRICE REALIZED $1,600
The vicious sermon delivered by Dom Diego da Annunciacoa Justiniano, the titular Archbishop of Cranganor, India, before sixty-six miserable victims of an auto-da-fé held in Lisbon in 1705, was a brutal tirade in which the Archbishop attempted to prove the truth of Christianity from Jewish sources. Upon its publication, David Nieto, the celebrated Haham of London, was moved to provide a fitting response. Penned under the nom-de-plume Carlos Vero (“Charles Truth”), Nieto’s brilliant response is one of cool, clear-headed theological scholarship. Nieto’s enterprise was necessitated by the relentless pressure exerted by the Inquisition upon the Marranos of Portugal, which was a painful and ongoing problem of 18th century Jewish life. Moses Mocatta produced the first English translation of the notorious sermon and Haham Nieto’s celebrated refutation in 1845. It was published by Isaac Leeser in Philadelphia in 1860. See H.P. Salomon, New Light on the Portuguese Inquisition: The Second Reply to the Archbishop of Cranganor, in: Studia Rosenthaliana, Vol. V No.2 (1971) pp.178-86