Conciliator

AUCTION 41 | Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, & Graphic Art

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Lot 221
MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL

Conciliator

FIRST EDITION. Part I (only). Title in Latin and Spanish. Spanish interspersed with Hebrew. Historiated initial pp.(16), 379, (33). Scattered stains. Gutter split. Later blue calf-backed marbled boards. 4to Silva Rosa 15

Frankfurt: By the Author 1632

Est: $800 - $1,200
PRICE REALIZED $700
Part I of the work which won Menasseh fame in Christian scholastic circles, Conciliador, poses 180 Questions, or glaring contradictions in the Bible, which the young Amsterdam rabbi deftly reconciles (hence the title “Conciliator”). The work is graced by Hebrew approbations by the rabbis of Frankfurt, Shabthai (Sheftel) Horowitz, son of Isaiah Horowitz (Shela”h ha-Kadosh), and Aaron ben Samuel Koidanover (author Birkath HaZevach). Twenty-eight years old at the time of its publication, Menasseh demonstrated his total conversance with both Jewish and non-Jewish literature, citing 221 Jewish and 54 Gentile authors. Cecil Roth, deems this book Menasseh’s “magnum opus.” Some bibliographers assert that the Frankfurt imprint is false and that the work was truly printed in Amsterdam. Roth, relying on the presence of the approbations of the Frankfurt rabbinate, rejects this notion. See EJ, Vol. XI, col. 855; C. Roth, A Life of Menasseh Ben Israel (1945), pp. 87-91; 320, n. 2