Shesh She’arim / Zecher Rav - Memoria de los 613 Preceptos de la S. Ley, y siete de Sabios [poem on 613 Biblical and 7 Rabbinic commandments]. Hebrew, with Spanish translation by Solomon Adhan

SASPORTAS, SOLOMON.

Naphtali Hertz Rophé

Amsterdam

1727

FIRST SPANISH EDITION. Several signatures of former owners. On Spanish front fly (in Spanish): "David Gom(m)es Fonceque." On Hebrew front fly: “This book was given to my sister by the Haham Jechiel son of Joseph in Gibraltar.” Also: "Este libro pertenese a Shalom de R. Ephraim [illegible] Gib. 26 de Mayo 1856"

Vinograd, Amsterdam 1313; Kayserling, pp. 8, 99

A member of the influential Amsterdam Sasportas family, Solomon served as Rabbi of Nice in the Provençe region of France, from 1690 until his death in 1724. The family name Sasportas is of either Spanish (Seis Puertas), or more likely, Portuguese derivation (Seis Portaõs) - hence the title of the work: Shesh She’arim (“Six Gates”). Translator and publisher Solomon Adhan hailed from Tãfîlãlet in Saharan Morocco. He left for Gibraltar and Amsterdam in 1720 to collect funds to redeem his family and synagogue which had fallen into the hands of nomadic Arabs. See EJ, Vol. V, col. 1224.