Rationes breves magni Rabi Samuelis, Judei nati, sed de Judaismo ad fides Catholicam converti. ["A Brief Account of the Great Rabbi Samuel, Born Jewish, but Converted from Judaism to the Catholic Faith."]

(SAMUEL, RABBI)

H. Quentell

Cologne

1493

Woodcut of scholar and students on title. Gothic type. Red lettering in initials and elswhere applied by hand. Ample margins. Scattered Latin marginalia. A crisp, clean copy

BMC I, 279; Goff S110

The Epistle of Rabbi Samuel is a widely-disseminated fabrication designed to convert Jews to Christianity. Supposedly composed in Arabic by a Moroccan Jew ("Samuel Marochitanus") at the beginning of the 11th-century, the book went through several editions and translations. See Studies in Bibliography and Booklore, Vol. V (1961) p. 89, no. 67