Sepher Ha’machberoth Le’Mar Immanuel [poetry]

IMMANUEL BEN SOLOMON OF ROME

Gershom ben Moses Soncino

Brescia

30th October, 1491

FIRST EDITION. With zodiacal illustrations on ff.48r-49v and colophon on f.160r

Vinograd, Brescia 3; Goff Heb-43; Freimann & Marx, Thesaurus A-77; Carmilly-Weinberger, pp.214-7

The first printed book of Hebrew poetry. Immanuel of Rome (c.1261-1368), a contemporary of Dante’s, known in Italian as Manoello Giudeo, modeled his literary work on the classic Sephardic poets - Solomon ibn Gabirol, Judah Halevi and Judah Al-Harizi. However, he also displayed a significant Italian influence. His famous vision of Heaven and Hell, influenced by Dante, is contained in the final section of this work. The Machberoth contains 27 compositions in the nature of satires, letters, prayers and dirges. The illustrations of the signs of the zodiac are the first to appear in a Hebrew book. Immanuel’s Machberoth is one of only two literary Hebrew incunabulae. The frivilous and sometime erotic nature of this controversial collection of sonnets and satires caused its censure. R. Joseph Karo forbade all from reading it, consequently, a subsequent edition was not published for another two centuries. According to Roth, Immanuel of Rome was “the most remarkable and the most important figure of the Renaissance period in the Jewish world.” See C. Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance (1959) pp. 89-103