(SEPHARDICA)

AUCTION 30 | Tuesday, September 20th, 2005 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Books and Manuscripts

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Lot 294

(SEPHARDICA)

Pharar, Abraham. Declaracaõ das 613 Encomendancas de nossa Sancta Ley, conforme à Exposissaõ de nossos Sabios, muy neçessaria ao Judesmo [“Declaration of the 613 Commandments of our Sacred Law, conforming to the Exposition of our Sages - Very Necessary to Judaism”] pp. (2), 310. Light stains. Contemporary vellum. 4to Kayserling 44;Treasures from the Library Ets Haim (1980), no. 61 (facsimile of title)

Amsterdam: Paulus Aertsen de Ravesteyn 1624

Est: $5,000 - $7,000

PRICE REALIZED $15,000

Book of Commandments by Marrano Physician-Scholar. Abraham Pharar was a relative of Jacob Tirado, founder of the Portuguese community Beth Jacob in Amsterdam. Pharar practiced medicine in Lisbon and later in Amsterdam, where he made the acquaintance of Menasseh ben Israel, who dedicated to him his work Thesaurus of Laws (Thesouro dos Dinim). Pharar died in Amsterdam in 1663. In his introduction to the present work, the author acknowledges his intellectual debt to the Haham Saul Levi Mortera, with whom he was wont to study daily. It stands to reason that Portuguese Marranos returning to their ancestral faith in Amsterdam would benefit immensely from a basic presentation of the 613 precepts of the Torah as expounded in this work. See C. Roth, A Life of Menasseh Ben Israel (1945) pp. 117-18