105 217 LUZZATTO, MOSES CHAIM (RaMCHa”L). Derech Chochmah, Ma’amar al HaHagadoth, Ma’amar Ha’Ikarim, Ma’amar HaChochmah. FIRST EDITION. Four parts in one. Four divisional titles. ff. (5), 5, (1), 3, (1), 7, (1), 10. Lightly browned. Modern calf-backed marbled boards. 8vo.[Vinograd, Amsterdam 2129.] Amsterdam, Widow and Orphans Proops, 1783. $700-1000 ❧ Four celebrated texts by this fascinating 18th-century Italian mystic and thinker. The first part is a dialogue between a young person and a sage, with the latter suggesting a lifetime course of Torah study culminating in Kabbalah. 2) Discusses differing Agadoth. 3) Discourse on prophecy, Heaven and Hell. 4) An analysis of various liturgical passages, as well as particular Kabbalistic themes. 218 (MEDICINE). Portaleone, Abraham ben David. De Auro Dialogi Tres [“Three Dialogues on the Application of Gold in Medicine.”] FIRST EDITION. Printer’s device on title. Headpieces. Historiated initials. On p. 12, magnificent full-page woodcut featuring the coat-of-arms of the author. pp. (8), 178, (24). Some browning. Contemporary limp vellum. 4to.[Fürst, III, p. 115; H. Friedenwald, Jewish Luminaries in Medical History, Vol. I (1946) p. 126] Venice, Johannes Baptistam da Porta, 1584. $2000-3000 ❧ IMPORTANT MEDICAL TREATISE BY THE ITALIAN JEWISH PHYSICIAN, AUTHOR OF “SHILTEI HAGIBORIM.” Abraham Portaleone (1542-1612), began his career as a Talmudic scholar under Rabbis Jacob Fano, and Judah and Abraham Provenzali. Later, he studied medicine at the University of Pavia, qualifying there in 1563 and subsequently was granted a license to treat Christians by the Dukes of Mantua, Guglielmo and Vincenzo I. This distinction, rare for a Jewish physician, was confirmed by Pope Gregory XIV. It was at the command of said Duke Guglielmo that Portaleone wrote this extensive and intriguing study on the use of gold in medicine, in which the author disproves the commonly held belief that the ingestion of gold can prolong life. See Alessandro Guetta, Avraham Portaleone: From Science to Mysticism in: Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, II (1999) pp. 41-47; Samuel S. Kottek, Jews between Profane and Sacred Science in Renaissance Italy: The Case of Abraham Portaleone in: Religious Confessions and the Sciences in the Sixteenth Century (2001) pp. 108-118; S. Simonsohn, History of the Jews of the Duchy of Mantua (1977) p. 584, 637-8, 645-6. 219 (MEDICINE). Amatus Lusitanus (pseudonym of João Rodrigues de Castello Branco). Curationum Medicinalium Tomus primus, continens centurias quatuor. Marginalia, portions scored through in ink. ff. (16), 746, (74). Stained and dampsoiled. Contemporary limp vellum, worn. Thick 8vo.[Adams A-919.] Venice, Vincentium Valgrisium, 1566. $500-700 Lot 217 Lot 218 Lot 219