Hebrew. PENTATEUCH, PROPHETS AND WRITINGS). Biblia Hebraica. Edited and with an introduction in Latin by Johannes Leusden

(BIBLE.

Joseph Athias

Amsterdam

1667

Title in Hebrew and Latin. Divisonal title pages

Vinograd, Amsterdam 356; Fuks, Amsterdam 393; Darlow & Moule 5134

In their formal Haskama, the three rabbis of Amsterdam, Isaac Aboab, Aaron Sarfati and Moses Raphael de Aguilar praise the scholarly contributions made here by the Christian Hebraist Johannes Leusden, head of the faculty at the University of Utrecht. It has been suggested that the chronograms that appear on the divisional titles of Nevi’im Acharonim and Kethuvim: “Moshi’a” (Saviour) and “Nosha” (Saved), respectively, betray the printer Joseph Athias’ sympathies for the pseudo-Messiah Shabthai Tzvi. It was in that year of 1666 that the so-called “Messiah of Izmir” proclaimed himself Redeemer. Nowhere was there greater Messianic enthusiasm than in Amsterdam, home to a large Marrano population