Ke’arath Keseph

EZOBI, JOSEPH

Amsterdam

1814

Manuscript in Hebrew. Aschkenazic neat square script with vowel-points, black ink on paper. Scribe: Mordechai ben Chaim Binger. With allegorical engaving affixed to title-page, few pen-and-ink flourishes.

The Author, a 13th-century Jewish poet, a native of Aragon, composed this ethical exhortation for his son upon his wedding. "He who desires to understand the culture and world view of an enlightened Jew of the thirteenth century stands to gain much by reading Ke’arat Kesef.” See Hayyim Schirmann, Hebrew Poetry in Spain and Provence, Book II, Vol. I, p. 343). “How close the flavor of Christian poets in the sixteenth century is to the flavor of the Jews, may be seen from the two Latin translations of Ke’arat Kesef made by two humanists famous in their generation: the German Johann Reuchlin, who referred to Ezobi as ‘the best of the Jewish poets,’ and John Mercier” (ibid.). See EJ, Vol. VI, col. 1104