NIETO, DAVID. Mateh Dan-Kuzari Chelek Sheni

AUCTION 49 | Wednesday, October 27th, 2010 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters and Graphic Art

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Lot 39

(ANGLO-JUDAICA)

NIETO, DAVID. Mateh Dan-Kuzari Chelek Sheni

FIRST EDITION. Bilingual edition, Hebrew and Spanish text in facing columns. Two title pages each with architectural arch incorporating portrait-roundel of Judah the Prince flanked by armour-suited angels. Historiated initials in both Hebrew and Spanish texts. Wide-margined copy. Includes Spanish dedicatory text (often lacking). Provenance: A. Rosenthal, Oxford ff. (10), 90, 90-254. Hebrew title laid to size. Lightly browned and damp-wrinkled. Contemporary blind-tooled calf over thick wooden boards, lacking clasps, rebacked. Large 4to Vinograd, London 24; Roth, London 5

London: Thomas Ilive 1714

Est: $1,000 - $1,500

PRICE REALIZED $1,400

Haham of the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue in London, David Nieto (1654-1728) composed the Mateh Dan as a defence of rabbinic Judaism from the scorn of free-thinking former Marranos. Nieto considered his work a continuation of the tradition of Judah Halevi’s Kuzari (Fano,1506) a philosophical exposition of Judaism, defending the validity of the Oral Law and opposing the attacks of Karaites, heretics and others