She’erith Yoseph [on the Calendar and intercalary years]. With commentary by David Perachia Hakohen. Second part by Abraham Zacuto, translated into Spanish by Joseph Vicinho

JOSEPH IBN SHEM TOV

Joseph Ya’abetz

Salonika

1568

FIRST HEBREW EDITION. Two parts in one. First part Hebrew; second part Judeo-Español. Ya’abetz florets on title and verso, and elsewhere. Tabular calculations. On 52a of first part, chart in shape of hand. On title, ornate Sephardi signature. Scattered marginalia

Vinograd, Salonika 78; Mehlman 1332; not in Adams

She’erith Joseph is an astronomical work. Appended to it is a short ethical treatise Orchoth Chayim, attributed to the second-century sage Rabbi Eliezer Hagadol (R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus) (ff. 91v.-94v.). The second part of the book, which is untitled, consists of Abraham Zacuto’s charts in Judeo-Español. It is exceedingly uncommon to find the book with both Hebrew and Judeo-Espaol parts complete. The physician Daniel Perachia Hakohen was a scion of one of the most distinguished Salonikan families. The Perachias were pedigreed priests who could trace their lineage back to the Second Temple. In the introduction to the second part, Perachia recalls that at the tender age of eighteen his father taught him the wisdom of intercalation (chochmath ha-ibbur) from the tables of the famous Spanish astronomer Abraham Zacuto (1452-c.1515). The Hebrew manuscript from which he studied had been written by his grandfather Samuel Perachia Hakohen. After a fire in Salonika in 1545 and the loss of his library, including Zacuto’s tables, Perachia searched in vain for a replacement copy. Finally, to his joy, he was able to obtain such a copy in Spanish translation by Joseph Vicinho. (The Library of JTS is in possession of this book, the only Spanish incunable published in Portugal. See Between the Lines: JTS Newsletter, Fall 2003, p. 3.) See also Marvin J. Heller, The Sixteenth Century Hebrew Book (Leiden: Brill, 2004), pp. 598-9