111 232 (SEPHARDICA). Atias, Isaac. Thesoro de Preceptos a Donde Se Encierran Las joyas de los Seys cientos y treze Preceptos [“Thesaurus of the Commandments. Where are Locked the Jewels of the Six Hundred and Thirteen Commandments.”] Second edition. Spanish text interspersed with Hebrew. Two parts in one volume. With Menasseh ben Israel’s device (see Yaari, Hebrew Printers’ Marks 58). ff. (12), 129, (9). Lightly browned, some dampstaining. Contemporary full vellum, some wear. 4to.[Palau 19334; Kayserling, p. 15; Cat. Menasseh, 60; Den Boer, Spanish and Portuguese Printing 34; J.H. Copenhagen, Menasseh ben Israel Bibliography 312.] Amsterdam, Semuel ben Israel Soero, 1649. $3000-5000 ❧ Isaac Atias was a disciple of Isaac Uziel in Amsterdam. He became Haham of the Portuguese Synagogue of Hamburg before accepting, in 1622, the call to serve as rabbi of Venice where he later died. (The first edition of Thesoro de Preceptos appeared in Venice in 1627). Following the lead of Maimonides in his Sepher HaMitzvoth, the author has divided the present book into two parts: The first, an enumeration of the 248 positive precepts; the second, an enumeration of the 365 negative precepts. The work was intended for the Spanish and Portuguese Marranos in such places as Amsterdam, Venice and Hamburg, who reverted to their ancestral faith but were now unfamiliar with the Hebrew language and largely ignorant of the traditional practices of Judaism. In the Prologue, Athias explicitly refers to his Marrano brethren as the “noblest nation of Spain” who had been punished with “exile, calamities, death and excessive suffering…whose major part had been miserably buried in the darkness of perdition until the Lord assisted them and they returned to adore His blessed service” (p. 3, right column). See JE, Vol. II, p. 268. 233 (SHABTHAI TZVI). The London Gazette, Numb. 46, Thursday, April 19th to Monday, April 23rd, 1666. Single leaf, double columned, recto and verso. Two minute wormholes along left and lower margins. Folio.[Not referred to by Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi (1973).] London, Tho. Newcomb, 1666. $1000-1500 ❧ Contemporary newspaper account of the arrival to Constantinople of “The Jewish Prophet Sabadai.” Datelined “Genoa, March 6t,” this journalistic account of Shabthai Tzvi’s arrival to Constantinople commences on solid ground before taking a flight of fancy: “It is written from Constantinople, That upon the arrival of the Jewish Prophet Sabadai, the Grand Signior [i.e. the Sultan] consulted with his Mufti, and one of his Judges, what was to be done with him, who resolved that he was to be dealt with as a Traytor to the Ottoman Empire…The false Prophet was immediately delivered to the Guard, who set him upon an ugly horde, and carried him to the Seven Towers…From the Seven Towers, he was in a little while delivered to the Executioner…” This amounts to wishful thinking on the part of this English reporter. The truth is that Shabthai lived a “gilded cage” existence in the Tower of Gallipoli, known by his ardent followers as Migdal Oz (Tower of Strength). Later he resided in Adrianople (Edirne), the Sultan’s second capital, and later in Dulcigno (then Albania) for another ten years, having converted to Islam. Far from this newspaper account, Shabthai Tzvi in fact died of natural causes, aged fifty, in 1676. 234 (SHABTHAI TZVI). Chavaya DeRabanan [communal proclamation against the followers of Shabthai Tzvi]. Single printed page. Text in Hebrew and Yiddish. Minor tears at creases expertly repaired, remnants of stamp. Modern morocco. Folio. [Vinograd, Wandsbeck 6.] [Wandsbeck, Israel ben Abraham, 1725]. $3000-5000 ❧ Following the discovery of a group of Sabbatean adherents traveling across Europe attempting to spread their heretical message, the three Aschkenazi communities of Amsterdam, Frankfurt am Main and Altona issued this broadside banning any assistance to, or even contact with, those suspected of promoting renegade beliefs. Jacob Emden published (distorted) extracts of this highly scarce proclamation in his Sepher Hithavkuth (1752). See G. Scholem & D. Wilhelm, The Chavaya DeRabanan Circulars Against the Sect of Sabbetai Zvi in: Kiryat Sefer Vol. XXX (1955) pp. 99-104. Lot 232