Shiltei ha-Giborim [“Shields of the Mighty”]
AUCTION 44 |
Thursday, June 25th,
2009 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Graphic & Ceremonial Art
Lot 220
PORTALEONE, ABRAHAM
Shiltei ha-Giborim [“Shields of the Mighty”]
Mantua: Vicenzo Gonzaga 1612
Est: $1,000 - $1,500
PRICE REALIZED $2,200
An encyclopedic work on war, music, numismatics, weaponry, architecture - all discussed in order to elucidate the composition of the Temple in Jerusalem. “Portaleone’s treatment is so discursive as to make the work a compendium of all branches of science known in his day, in which all of the ten languages he knew were amply used.” EJ, Vol. XIII, cols. 908-9. See also Alessandro Guetta, “Avraham Portaleone: From Science to Mysticism” in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, II (1999); and Samuel S. Kottek, “Jews between Profane and Sacred Science in Renaissance Italy: The Case of Abraham Portaleone” in Religious Confessions and the Sciences in the Sixteenth Century (2001)