Isaac Atias (Athias). Tesoro de Preceptos donde se encierran Las joyas de los Seys cientos y treze Preceptos que encomendó el Señor a su Pueblo Israel.

(IBERIAN / SEPHARDIC LITERATURE)

Giovanni Caleoni

Venice

1627

FIRST EDITION. Spanish text interspersed with Hebrew. Two parts in one volume.The Mayer Sulzberger copy with his bookplate (Provenance: Christie’s, 5.22.86 lot 32).

Palua 19333; Kayserling, p. 15.

A disciple of Isaac Uziel in Amsterdam, Isaac Atias was Haham of the first Portuguese-Jewish congregation in Hamburg, before accepting the call in 1622 to serve as rabbi of Venice where he later died. See JE, Vol. II, p. 268. Following the lead of Maimonides in his Sepher HaMitzvoth, the author has divided this important work into two parts: The first, an enumeration of the 248 positive precepts; the second, an enumeration of the 365 negative precepts. In the Prologue, Athias explicitly refers to his Marrano brethren as the "noblest nation of Spain" who have been punished with "exile, calamities, death and excessive suffering… and whose majority number have been miserably buried in the darkness of perdition until the Lord assisted them and they returned to adore his blessed service.”