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Bidding Information
Lot #    11603
Auction End Date    9/20/2005 10:25:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Matteh Dan Y Segunda parte del Cuzari
Author    [First Ed. - Polemic] R. David b. Pinehas Nieto
City    London
Publisher    Thomas Olive
Publication Date    1714
Item of
Exceptional
Interest		    Checked
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    First edition. [12], 272 ff., 225:174 mm., usual light age and damp staining, wide margins. A very good copy bound in later boards, rubbed and split.
          
Paragraph 1    Devoted to a defense of the Oral Law against the attacks of ex-Marranos to whom the rabbinic tradition was both novel and unacceptable.
          
Detailed
Description		    Devoted to a defense of the Oral Law against the attacks of ex-Marranos to whom the rabbinic tradition was both novel and unacceptable. The work has frequently been reprinted as a defense of rabbinic Judaism (last edition: Jerusalem, 1958). R. David b. Pinehas Nieto (1654–1728), philosopher and haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in London (1701–28). Having studied medicine at the University of Padua, Nieto functioned as dayyan, preacher, and physician in Leghorn before going to London. He was proficient in languages and an astronomer of some repute. His calendar (1717) served the London community until the 19th century as a guide for the Sabbath and festivals. His works indicate that he was fully aware of the religious currents and crosscurrents of his time, including Spinozism, Deism, and Shabbateanism. Esh Dat (1715) was directed against the Shabbatean heresiarch, Nehemiah Hiyya Hayon, Previously, Nieto had published Pascalogia (1702), dealing with the date of the Christian Easter in relation to that of the Jewish Passover, and De La Divina Providencia (1704). The latter was an elaboration of a sermon Nieto had delivered to combat the deistic notion of a "Nature" apart from G-d. Nieto identified Nature with G-d; and, although he made it clear that he had natura naturans, and not natura naturata (see Spinoza) in mind, he was accused of Spinozistic leanings. Nevertheless, "Hakham Zevi" Ashkenazi (cf. his responsum no. 18) ruled in his favor. Nieto's Reply to the Archbishop of Cranganor, published posthumously in 1729, controverts the christological interpretation of the Bible. In his writings, Nieto gives evidence of wide reading in science and the humanities. He argues for the compatability of Judaism and scientific investigations. Nieto is also one of the very few Jewish theologians who used the argument de consensu gentium to establish the dogmas of G-d's existence and of retribution.
          
Reference
Description		    EJ; I. Solomons, David Nieto and Some of his Contemporaries (1931); A. M. Hyamson, Sephardim of England (1950), index; J. J. Petuchowski, Theology of Haham David Nieto (1954; 19702); D. Nieto, Ha-Kuzari ha-Sheni (1958), introd. by J. L. Maimon, 5–20, biography by C. Roth, 261–75.
        
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Listing Classification
Period
  
18th Century:    Checked
  
Location
England:    Checked
  
Subject
Polemics:    Checked
  
Characteristic
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Spanish
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica