David Abenatar Melo. Los CL. Psalmos de David: In Lengua Espanola, en uarias rimas...conforme ala verdadera Tracduccion ferraresqua.

<<FUNDAMENTALLY IMPORTANT JEWISH TRANSLATION INTO SPANISH OF THE BOOK OF PSALMS. LIKELY THE FIRST BOOK IN SPANISH TO BE PRINTED IN GERMANY>> (see below). This remarkable translation of the Book of Psalms into Spanish verse was dedicated to “The Blessed God and Holy Company of Israel and Judah, scattered throughout the world” - a testament to the Author’s suffering at the hands of the Inquisition. Composed by David Abenatar Melo a Marrano poet of Iberian birth, who had endured years of imprisonment and torture and who extraordinarily, had successfully escaped an auto-de-fe. Fleeing Church captors he found sanctuary in Amsterdam where the climate of safety permitted him to revert to the faith of his fathers. A founding member of the Talmud Torah Ez Hayyim, after much training in Jewish principles of faith and learning, he became a lecturer of the De los Pintos Rabbinical Academy (formerly of Rotterdam). Thereafter he was appointed rabbi and Hazzan of Amsterdam’s Portuguese synagogue, Beit Yisrael. A moderately wealthy man, he subsidized the publication of a Festival prayer book (1617) and a Passover Hagadah (1622) - both in Spanish and both of exceptional rarity. Melo’s most personal literary achievement was this Book of Psalms, somewhat less a translation than a literary paraphrase. The prologue provides an account of Melo’s suffering in Portugal, indeed the text of the Psalms itself contain several allusions to the tyrannies of the Inquisition, especially Psalm 30 wherein Melo recounts the auto-de-fe at which he himself appeared along with eleven other Judaizers all of whom were burned at the stake. Bibliographically speaking, the volume is of interest due to the place of printing. Although the city “FRanquaForte” (Frankfurt) appears on the title page, scholars agree that this city name was utilized to avoid censors. Debate reins however whether the true city of printing is Amsterdam (Cassuto), or more likely, Hamburg (Salomon). As Salomon writes: “It is, as far as as I can tell, the first book in Spanish to be printed within the confines of what now is called Germany, and if it is perhaps not the first Jewish book to appear in that entire area, it might possibly be the first Jewish book printed in Hamburg.” See H.P. Salomon, Portrait of a New Christian: Fernao Alvares Melo (Paris, 1982) pp. 155-59; A. Cassuto, Works by Portuguese Jewish Authors Printed in Hamburg, Altona and Gluckstadt. (Gedenkschrift), 1927. Furthermore, the present copy is one of only two (the other in the Royal Library at The Hague) without a penned correction to the date on the title-page. <<A MOST ATTRACTIVE COPY IN A CONTEMPORARY DUTCH-JEWISH BINDING. VERY RARE TO APPEAR FOR AUCTION SALE.>>