Anonymous (Carlo Alfano?). Il Sabathai, o vero, Il finto Messia degli hebrei, che nell`anno 1666 si dichiarò Maumettano in Costantinopoli.

(SABBATIANISM)

Gio. Francesco Paci, 1671.

Viterbo

1671

Second edition. Text in Italian.

Not in WorldCat.

Exceptionally rare, possibly a unicum. Only two copies of the first edition (c. 1669) are recorded. An important and detailed biography, written in his lifetime, of the False Messiah Shabthai Tzvi (1626-76), from his birth through his conversion to Islam. The anonymous author, possibly an Italian diplomat, completed this report in Constantinople and sent it to his Italian correspondent on 16th December, 1666. A rare and valuable source on the history of Shabthai Tzvi. Gershom Scholem tried unsuccessfully to locate this work: “So far, I have not been able to examine a copy” see Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah” (1975) p. 763.