Judah Leon de Joseph Perez. Fundamento solido, Baza y Thypo de la Sacro Sancta, y divina ley… por un methodo facil y distinto - Sepher Yesod Oz.

First edition of a rare Spanish compendium of Jewish theology written in a dialogue format. The works that were published for the use of former Marranos took full cognizance of their background and mentality and attempted to express Jewish concepts and values in ways that would be congenial to them. Iberian idioms and forms often facilitated the comprehension and absorption of Jewish materials. A striking example of such adaptation is the Fundamento Solido (“The Solid Foundation”) by R. Judah ben Joseph Perez, a descendant of a Castilian family, who served as rabbi and preacher at Venice and Amsterdam in the first half of the 18th-century. Written in the form of a catechism, with questions and answers on the foundations of the Jewish faith: “Para los ninos y para los ignorantes” (“for children and for the ignorant.”) Thus it is a perfect instance of the appropriation of a Catholic form, familiar to anyone who had been raised in Spain or Portugal, but now filled entirely with Jewish content. (See Luis Feinberg Memorial Lecture in Judaic Studies, March 26th 1980, Hebrew Union College, by Yosef Hayyim Yerushalmi “The Re-Education of the Marranos in the Seventeenth Century.”)