Sepher HaMachbaroth [poetry]

IMMANUEL BEN SOLOMON OF ROME.

Gershom ben Moses Soncino

Brescia

1491

FIRST EDITION. Alternating square Hebrew characters and cursive rabbinic (Rashi) script. With zodiacal illustrations within text of ff. 48r.-49r

Vinograd, Brescia 3; Goff Heb-43; Freimann & Marx, Thesaurus A-77; Offenberg 58; Wineman Cat. 46; Carmilly-Weinberger, pp. 214-7

The first printed book of Hebrew poetry. One of only two literary Hebrew incunabulae. Immanuel of Rome (c.1261-1368), known in Italian as Manoello Giudeo ("Immanuel the Jew"), modeled his literary work on the classic Sephardic poets: Solomon ibn Gabirol, Judah Halevi and Judah Al-Harizi. However, Immanuel also displayed a significant Italian influence, for example his vision of Heaven and Hell contained in the final section of this work, is clearly influenced by his contemporary Dante. The Machbaroth contains 27 compositions in the nature of satires, letters, prayers and dirges. The light-hearted and sometimes erotic nature of some of the sonnets and satires caused its censure by R. Joseph Karo who forbade its reading. According to Cecil Roth, Immanuel of Rome was “the most remarkable and most important figure of the Renaissance period in the Jewish world.” See The Jews in the Renaissance (1959), pp. 89-103; EJ, Vol. VIII, cols. 1295-1298. For typographical variants found within this Brescia edition see A. Yaari, "Iyyunim be-incunabulim ivriyim," in: Kiryat Sefer Vol. XXIV (1947), p. 159