Sepher Eilim - Sepher Mayan Ganim - Sepher Mayan Chathum

AUCTION 38 | Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters & Graphic Art

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Lot 92

DELMEDIGO, JOSEPH SOLOMON

Sepher Eilim - Sepher Mayan Ganim - Sepher Mayan Chathum

FIRST EDITION. Three Parts in one, two titles. Numerous astronomical and mathematical illustrations pp. (6 of 8); 83, (1); (2 of 4),190, (2); 80. Lacks single Latin introductory leaf following opening title of Sepher Eilim, and portrait following title of Sepher Ma’ayan Ganim. Former owner's signature on title. Ex-library. Contemporary blind-tooled calf. Sm. 4to Vinograd, Amsterdam 20; Fuks, Amsterdam 150-1; Silva Rosa 6

Amsterdam: Menassah ben Israel 1628-29

Est: $2,000 - $3,000

PRICE REALIZED $1,900

Eilim is one of the great scientific books of Hebrew Literature, sumptuously illustrated, with treatises relating to: geometry, algebra, chemistry, astronomy, physics, medicine and metaphysics. SeeA. Neher, Jewish Thought and the Scientific Revolution of the Sixteenth Century (1986), pp. 251-2; H. Friedenwald, Jewish Luminaries in Medical History-Catalogue (1946), p.111; A.J. Karp, From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress (1991), pp. 199-200. The Delmedigos were an Aschkenazic family of German descent that settled on the isle of Crete (Candia) at the end of the 14th-century. Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, or as he is known in Hebrew, YaShaR (Yosef Shelomo Rophe) of Candia (1591-1655), was a figure of such utter complexity that he continues to tantalize scholars to this day. See I. Barzilay, Yoseph Shlomo Delmedigo (Yashar of Candia): His Life, Works and Times (Leiden, 1974); JE, Vol. IV, pp. 506-509; EJ, Vol. V, cols. 1477-1481; Vol. XIV, cols. 889-890