Ma’aseh Tuviah.

AUCTION 53 | Thursday, December 08th, 2011 at 1:00

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

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Lot 83

COHN, TOBIAS.

Ma’aseh Tuviah.

first edition Three parts in one. Title within architectural arch. Fine engraved portrait of the Author by Antonio Luciani on verso. Anatomical plate and numerous fine scientific text illustrations. Approbation from the Ecclesiastical authorities on final page. Two divisional titles. ff. (6), 158. Lightly stained, some minor worming adjacent to inner margins, otherwise an attractive copy. Later vellum. 4to Vinograd, Venice 1572; Garrison & Morton, Medical Bibliography 6496.1; Friedenwald, The Jews and Medicine - Catalogue (1946), pp.59-60; Rubens 693

Venice: Bragadin 1707-8

Est: $3,000 - $5,000

PRICE REALIZED $3,000

IMPORTANT HEBREW SCIENTIFIC ENCYCLOPEDIA. Celebrated encyclopedia of medical and natural sciences, comprising sections on geography and astronomy; theology and metaphysics (including section Olam Ha’elyon, Discourse VI on the coming of the Messiah and the Sabbatian Movement); a lexicon of pharmacological and botanical terms in Hebrew, Latin and Turkish; and most significantly, an important section on medicine (including anatomy and gynecology). Includes discussions on the medical properties of tobacco, description of the plica polonica and an examination of the Magdeburg experiment on the vacuum. Also contains an important historical section on the false Messiah Shabetai Tzvi and his prophet Nathan of Gaza (ff. 26-29. The Author, Tobias Cohn (1652-1729) was born in Metz and raised by relatives in Cracow following his father's untimely death. He studied medicine at the University of Padua and was called to serve as Court physician in Turkey. See EJ, Vol. V, cols. 692-93; JE, Vol. IV, pp. 161-62 (incl. facs. of anatomical plate f.106r).