Tzeror Hachaim. De Termino Vitae

MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL.

By the Author

Amsterdam

1639

Title within architectural columns

Coppenhagen, Menasseh 211; Silva Rosa 35

A discussion instigated by the Dutch intellectual Jan van Beverwyck in his work Epistolica Quaestio de Vitae Termino, fatali an mobili (Dordrecht, 1634) questioning whether death is brought on by natural causes or is Divinely ordained. Menasseh's response, based on Jewish sources, argues that the span of life is not predetermined by the Deity but depends on constitutional, temperamental, and climatic influences. The book concludes with Carmen Intellectuale, a panegyric in honor of Menasseh by Jacob Rosales of Hamburg. Of all Menasseh’s Latin works, this was the most successful.” C. Roth, A Life of Menasseh ben Israel (1945), pp. 94-5