Shabtai, Judah Halevi ben Isaac ibn. Minchath Yehudah, Son’ei ha-Nashim [“The Gift of Judah, Hater of Women”]

(PARODY)

Eliezer ben Gershom Soncino

Constantinople

1543

FIRST EDITION. Title within typographic border, florets in corners. On last page, signature of censor. Poetic portions in square letters provided with nikuds (vowel points), remainder in Rashi script, with exception of mock Kethubah, which is in larger letters, unvocalized

Vinograd, Const. 179; Yaari, Const. 134

EXTREMELY RARE EDITION OF A MISOGYNISTIC TRACT Few facts survive concerning Judah ibn Shabtai, other than that he lived in Spain in the 13th-century. The date of the mock Kethubah in this tract, “4777” [1017] is an obvious printer’s error. It should read “4977” [1217], when it is believed ibn Shabtai composed the work. Israel Davidson argues, that Son’ei ha-Nashim is as much a parody on the misogynist or woman-hater himself, as it is on the women it supposedly holds up to ridicule. See I. Davidson, Parody in Jewish Literature (1966), pp. 7-11; EJ, Vol. X, cols. 346-7. The rarity of this work is attested to by the fact that JNUL has but a photocopy in its collection