Ma’ayenei HaYeshuah [“Springs of Salvation”: commentary to the Book of Daniel].

ABRABANEL, DON ISAAC.

Menaseh ben Israel)

(Amsterdam

1647

Second edition.

Vinograd, Amsterdam 136; Fuks, Amsterdam 185.

With the Expulsion from Spain in 1492, Jews were given to much eschatological speculation. In Ma’ayenei HaYeshuah, Don Isaac Abrabanel - who had served as chief financial counselor to the King of Portugal and later to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain - set out to explore the Jewish conception of the future Redemption. The book, the first part of a messianic trilogy, was completed in Italy in 1497. See B. Netanyahu, Don Isaac Abravanel: Statesman and Philosopher (1968), pp. 77-78. “Though neither place of issue nor printer are indicated on the title, the book can be ascribed without any doubt to the Officina Ben Israel.” Fuks, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Netherlands, Vol. I (1984), p.131.