(Celebrated Philosopher of the German Enlightenment. 1729-1786). Autograph Letter Signed and Autograph Envelope addressed to “Herrn Elkan Herz in Leipzig” with wax seal with Hebrew word “be-yad” (in the hand of) and monogram “MM”

MENDELSSOHN, MOSES.

12th Sivan [5]541 / 5th June

Berlin

1781

Judeo-German (Hebrew characters). One page

Letter by Moses Mendelssohn to His Cousin and Confidant, Elkan Hertz. In this letter, written in a flowery Judeo-German, the man referred to as the “German Plato” congratulates his cousin and intimate confidant upon having entered into some business arrangement with Joseph Guggenheim, brother of Mendelssohn’s wife, Fromet. Alexander Altmann, Mendelssohn’s biographer, observes that the letter is a testimony to Mendelssohn’s sense of fairness and nobility of character. A lesser man would certainly have been exasperated with a brother-in-law who had squandered a sizable investment due to negligence and mismanagement. Altmann translates key passages from the letter: “May I tell you how pleased I am that my brother-in-law Joseph [Guggenheim] is doing business with you…I have every confidence in his well-proven honesty. True, the business that he ran for me in Prussia miscarried. It was not his fault, however, nor has anybody, God forbid, suffered any loss except we ourselves. By the way, he does not owe anyone a penny, so far as I know.” See A. Altmann, Moses Mendelsson: A Biographical Study (1973), p. 306; and H.M.Z. Meyer, Moses Mendelssohn Bibliographie (1965), p. 230, no. 31