(PHILOSOPHY).

Isaiah ben Jacob of Masseran, Scribe

Trino (Italy)

1468-1471

Ibn Gabirol, Solomon. Mivchar ha-Peninim ["Choice of Pearls": ethical work in form of epigrams]. * Palmon ben Peleth (pseudonym). Aliloth Devarim ["Accusations": anti-rabbinic polemic]. * Ibn Tibbon, Judah. Ru'ach Chen ["Spirit of Grace"]. * Romano, Judah. Ben Porath ["A Fruitful Vine": commentary to first four chapters of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah]

ff. 1v.-27r. Mivchar Peninim with commentary in margins based on that by Samson of Joigny. ff. 27v.-52v. Aliloth Devarim with commentary in margins by "Joseph." Colophon on f.52v. gives the date of completion as Tuesday, 13th Nissan, 1468. While Graetz and Netanyahu assumed a Spanish origin of this pseudonymous work, Ta-Shema adduced proofs for a German origin. See I.Ta-Shema, "Where was 'Alilot-Devarim' Composed?," Alei Sefer 3 (1976), pp. 44-53. And more recently, R. Bonfil, "Sepher Aliloth Devarim: Perek be-toldoth he-haguth ha-yehudith be-me'ah ha-14," Eshel Be'er Sheva II (1980), pp. 229-264. Of late, Talya Fishman has described Alilot Devarim as belonging to a genre of "pseudonymous, "in-house" critiques of halakhah produced within the Rabbinic world." See T. Fishman, "Forging Jewish Memory" in: Carlebach, Efron and Myers eds., Jewish History and Jewish Memory: Essays in Honor of Y.H.Yerushalmi (1998), p. 81. ff. 53r.-59v. Ru'ach Chen. Colophon on f.59v. gives date of completion, "47th day of Sephirah, 1468." ff. 59v.-62r. Ben Porath. Colophon on f.62r.: "…I wrote it and completed it on the 9th of Teveth, 1471, here Trino…Isaiah ben Jacob." ff. 62v.-63v. Brief philosophical extracts. PROVENANCE: Solomon Halberstam to Montefiore Library, Ramsgate, England (Montefiore Ms. 266). See Sotheby's, New York, October 2004, Lot 223