Chovoth HaLevavoth ["Duties of the Heart": ethics and pietism]. Translated from Arabic into Hebrew by Judah Ibn Tibbon

BACHIAH BEN JOSEPH IBN PAQUDA

Daniel Bomberg

Venice

1548

Second edition. On front fly, old Italian inscription of former owner "Abram Vecchio, Rabbi of Mantua." (See below.) On another fly leaf, initials "S.D.L." (Samuel David Luzzatto?) Scattered Hebrew marginalia in old Italki hand. On final page, inscription of Church censor: "Visto per me Gio[vanni] Dominico Carretto 1618." (See Wm. Popper, Pl. III, no. 6)

Vinograd, Venice 335; Haberman, Bomberg 214; not in Adams

In composing this fundamental text of Jewish thought, Bachiah attempted to systematize the ethical teachings of Judaism. “The Torah is divided into two parts: the duties to be performed by the organs (chovoth ha'evarim) and the duties of the heart (chovoth halev), namely those belonging to human conscience. The majority of the rabbis pay attention only to the outward observance of the Law, without regard to the ideas and sentiments embodied in the 613 laws of Moses. Even the pious are often prompted only by selfish and worldly motives” (Introduction). Thus Bachya undertook to write ”The Duties of the Heart.” Abraham ben Shabatai (del) Vecchio (d. 1654) was Rabbi of Mantua in the first half of the 17th-century. Some of his responsa have been preserved in contemporary collections, e.g. R. Samuel Aboab, Devar Shmuel, no. 19. See S. Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua (1977) pp. 737-38