Auction 4 · Lot 161

Sepher Eilim

Estimate: $4,000–$5,000
Hammer price: $7,500

Historical auction record. Hammer prices exclude buyer’s premium and taxes.

author

DELMEDIGO, JOSEPH SOLOMON OF CRETE

printer

Menassah ben Israel

Place

Amsterdam

Publication

1628-29

Description

FIRST EDITION. Three Parts in one. Engraved frontispiece portrait of the Author, numerous astronomical and mathematical illustrations. A good wide-margined copy

references

Vinograd, Amsterdam 20; Fuks, Amsterdam 150-1; Silva Roas 6

summary

One of the great scientific books of Hebrew Literature, Delmedigo presents these treatises in response to inquiries by Karaite scholars, relating to: geometry, algebra, chemistry, astronomy, physics, medicine and metaphysics. Sabin-Hill calls the Sepher Eilim “the most sumptuously illustrated of early scientific works in Hebrew, and unique in printed Hebrew literature before the modern period.” See National Library of Canada Catalogue, The Jacob H. Lowy Collection (1981) no.80 (illustrated); A. Neher, Jewish Thought and the Scientific Revolution of the Sixteenth Century (1986) pp.251-2; H. Friedenwald, Jewish Luminaries in Medical History-Catalogue (1946) p.111; A.J. Karp. From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress (1991) pp. 199-200

pp.(4),96,80,97-190,(14),83, misbound though all complete. Small stain through opening 4 pp., and on final page, three leaves with neat marginal repairs not affecting text. Contemporary limp vellum. 4to

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