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Auction 27 · Lot 290
Rabbi Aviad Sar Shalom Basilea ben Menachem Samson. Legal Manuscript Signed, in Italian and Hebrew concerning the sale of real estate
- Estimate
- $2,500–$3,000
- Hammer price
- Not recorded
Historical auction record. Hammer prices exclude buyer’s premium and taxes.
author
(ITALIAN JUDAICA)
Place
Mantua
Publication
1715
summary
The signatory on this document, Aviad Sar Shalom Basilea (c.1680-1743), son of Menachem Samson Basilea, chief rabbi of Mantua, was a gifted author, whose work, Emunath Chachamim (“Faith of the Sages”) has become a classic defense of the Kabbalah. To support his thesis Basilea reviews the whole of Hebrew literature, as well as Greek, Arabic, and Renaissance philosophy. Basilea was a student of his father and of R. Moses Zacuto (Rama”z), R. Judah Briel and R. Benjamin Cohen (Raba”ch).
Basilea is also remembered for the role he played in the defense of the persecuted Rabbi Moses Chaim Luzzatto (Ramcha”l). Due to a bizarre run-in with the Church, the rabbi’s last years were spent under house arrest. See S. Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua (1977), pp. 158, 696-697; JE, Vol. II, p. 577; EJ, Vol. IV, col. 299