Ma’ayenei ha-Yeshuah [“Springs of Salvation”: commentary on the book of Daniel]

ABRABANEL, DON ISAAC

Menaseh ben Israel)

(Amsterdam

1647

Second edition. Additional Latin title. Text set in Rashi type, printed in double columns. A few Latin marginalia in pencil. On front fly and title, Hebrew signatures of former owner, “Chaim Wagenaar” (see below)

Vinograd, Amsterdam 136; Fuks, Amsterdam 185

Witrh the Expulsion from Spain in 1492, Jews were given to much eschatological speculation. In Ma’ayenei ha-Yeshuah, Don Isaac Abrabanel - who had served as chief financial counsellor to the King of Portugal and later to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain - set out to explore the Jewish conception of the future Redemption. The book, the first part of a messianic trilogy, was completed in Italy in 1497. See B. Netanyahu, Don Isaac Abravanel: Statesman and Philosopher (1968), pp. 77-78. “Though neither place of issue nor printer are indicated on the title, the book can be ascribed without any doubt to the Officina Ben Israel.” Fuks, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Netherlands, Vol. I (1984), p.131. Chaim Wagenaar was a Dutch rabbinic scholar and researcher. He produced an excellent biography of Rabbi Jacob Emden: Toledoth Yaabetz (Amsterdam, 1869). See M.H. Gans, Memorbook (1977), p. 693