Sepher Eilim - Sepher Mayan Ganim - Sepher Mayan Chathum.

DELMEDIGO, JOSEPH SOLOMON OF CRETE.

Menassah ben Israel

Amsterdam

1628

FIRST EDITION. Three Parts in one, two titles. Numerous astronomical and mathematical illustrations. Engraved frontispiece portrait of the author engraved by W. Delff after a painting by C. Duyster. Titles within typographical border.

Vinograd, Amsterdam 20; Fuks, Amsterdam 150-1; Silva Rosa 6.

One of the great scientific books of Hebrew Literature, with treatises relating to geometry, algebra, chemistry, astronomy, physics, medicine and metaphysics. The Sepher Eilim has been described as: “The most sumptuously illustrated of early scientific works in Hebrew, and unique in printed Hebrew literature before the modern period” (see National Library of Canada Catalogue, The Jacob M. Lowy Collection, 1981, no. 80). See also, A. Neher, Jewish Thought and the Scientific Revolution of the Sixteenth Century (1986) pp. 251-2; H. Friedenwald, Jewish Luminaries in Medical History-Catalogue (1946) p.111; A.J. Karp. From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress (1991) pp. 199-200.