Mordechai Gumpel HaLevi Schnaber (alias, Dr. George Levison). Maamar HaTorah VeHaChochmah [essay on law and the sciences]

AUCTION 50 | Thursday, February 24th, 2011 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Graphic & Ceremonial Art Including: The Alfonso Cassuto Collection of Iberian Art

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Lot 198
(SCIENCE)

Mordechai Gumpel HaLevi Schnaber (alias, Dr. George Levison). Maamar HaTorah VeHaChochmah [essay on law and the sciences]

FIRST EDITION pp. 4, 85, 5. Some staining and marginal wear with few leaves taped. Later boards. Large 4to Vinograd, London 63; Roth, London 22.

London: Moses b. Gershon & Partners 1771

Est: $500 - $700
The author was the grandson of his namesake, R. Gumpel Schnaber, the dayan of the tri-communities of Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbeck. He studied under the wing of Chief Rabbi David Frankel in Berlin and then left for England for a medical career where he was appointed physician to the Duke of Portland. He later served as a Professor of Medicine at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. The present work, which stressed the importance of studying the sciences, engendered controversy among the zealous. See Piccioto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History, p. 138; and Friedenwald, Jewish Luminaries in Medical History p. 95.