TANG, ABRAHAM BEN NAPHTALI [ABRAHAMS]. Pirkei Avoth. The Sentences and Proverbs of the Ancient Fathers...Called Abouth...Translated into English with some comments of Maimonides [and the translator]

The translator, the English scholar Abraham Tang (d. 1792) was a grandson of the Dayan of Prague, Abraham Tausig Neu-Greschel. Like his grandfather, he signed his name with the Hebrew initials TN”G, and is thus generally known as Tang (see his Hebrew name on p.xlii of tthe introduction). On the title page however, he used the pseudonym “A Primitive Ebrew,” and his signature in English on the recto of title reads Abrahams. Tang wrote a number of other works, all unpublished, and his manuscripts were until recently in the Jews’ College Library, London. See: A. Neubauer, Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts ...Jews’ College, London [i.e.the Beth Din Library], nos. 7 and 35. See also C. Roth, Essays...I. Brodie (1967) pp. 368-72; and S.B. Leperer in Transactions...JHSE, vol. 24 (1974) pp. 82-88. In addition to his Rabbinic knowledge, Tang was an enlightened scholar, well familiar with secular writings. He cites “a noble passage of my countryman, Milton” as an introduction to a comment by Maimonides (p. 24 of the introduction). Tang was also a fine scribe and artist, and produced an illuminated Hagadah presently in the Jewish Museum, London. See R. D. Barnett, ed., Catalogue...of the Jewish Museum (1974) no. 638, pp. 124-125, Plate C1. The Norden Family were influential industrialists and scholars who served as Parnassim in Amsterdam and London. Their wealth stemmed from trade in the West Indies. Leib Norden was Jacob Emden’s primary financial backer and supporter (see J. Emden, Megillath Sepher pp.146-47, M. J. Cohen, Jacob Emden, p. 67). Norden later supported the appointment of Emden’s son, R. Meshulam Zalman, as Rabbi of the Hambro Synagogue in London (see D. Kaufmann, “Rabbi Zevi Ashkenazi and His Family in London”, JHSE Transactions, vol. III, pp.102-125, especially p.120-12 and n. 80-83). See also Kestenbaum Auction 31, lot 85, for a presentation copy of a book given to Eliahu Norden as a wedding gift