Ha’emunoth Vehade’oth [philosophy]. Additional Latin title with Menasseh ben Israel’s woodcut device. Hebrew title within engraved architectural arch. ff. (3) 4-53.

SAADIAH GAON.

David de Castro Tartas for Joseph ben Israel, & Menaseh ben Israel

Amsterdam

1647

Originally written in Arabic, Emunoth Veha’de’oth was the first systematic treatise of religious Jewish philosophic literature. With the Expulsion from Spain in 1492, Jews were given to much eschatological speculation. In Ma’ayenei ha-Yeshuah, Don Isaac Abrabanel - who had served as chief financial counsellor to the King of Portugal and later to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain - set out to explore the Jewish conception of the future Redemption. The book, the first part of a messianic trilogy, was completed in Italy in 1497. See B. Netanyahu, Don Isaac Abravanel: Statesman and Philosopher (1968), pp. 77-8. Though neither place of issue nor printer are indicated on the title, the book can be ascribed without any doubt to the Officina Ben Israel. See Fuks, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Netherlands, Vol. I p. 131.