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Bidding Information
Lot #    23632
Auction End Date    6/9/2009 11:19:00 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Ateret Zekeinim
Title (Hebrew)    עטרת זקנים
Author    [First Ed.] Don Isaac Abravanel
City    Sabbioneta
Publisher    Tobias Foa
Publication Date    1556
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    First edition. 40, [4] ff., 210:151 mm., light age and damp staining, wide margins, several ff. on blue paper. A very good copy bound in modern full leather over boards, tooled in blind.
          
Detailed
Description		    On Providence and prophecy, composed while still a youth. Don Isaac b. Judah Abravanel (1437-1508), received a careful education and was a pupil of R. Joseph Hayyim, rabbi of Lisbon. Well versed in Talmudic literature and in the learning of his time, endowed with a clear and keen mind, and full of enthusiasm for Judaism, he devoted his early years to the study of Jewish religious philosophy, and when scarcely twenty years old wrote on the original form of the natural elements, on the most vital religious questions, on prophecy, etc. His political abilities also attracted attention while he was still young. He entered the service of King Alfonso V. of Portugal as treasurer, and soon won the confidence of his master. Notwithstanding his high position and the great wealth he had inherited from his father, his love for his afflicted brethren was unabated. When Arzilla, in Morocco, was taken by the Moors, and the Jewish captives were sold as slaves, he contributed largely to the funds needed to manumit them, and personally arranged for collections throughout Portugal. He also wrote to his learned and wealthy friend Jehiel, of Pisa, in behalf of the captives. After the death of Alfonso he was obliged to relinquish his office, having been accused by King John II. of connivance with the duke of Bragança, who had been executed on the charge of conspiracy. Don Isaac, warned in time, saved himself by a hasty flight to Castile (1483). His large fortune was confiscated by royal decree. At Toledo, his new home, he occupied himself at first with Biblical studies, and in the course of six months produced an extensive commentary on the books of Joshua, Judges, and Samuel. But shortly afterward he entered the service of the house of Castile. Together with his friend, the influential Don Abraham Senior, of Segovia, he undertook to farm the revenues and to supply provisions for the royal army, contracts that he carried out to the entire satisfaction of Queen Isabella. During the Moorish war Abravanel advanced considerable sums of money to the government. When the banishment of the Jews from Spain was decreed, he left nothing undone to induce the king to revoke the edict. In vain did he offer him 30,000 ducats ($68,400, nominal value). With his brethren in faith he left Spain and went to Naples, where, soon after, he entered the service of the king. For a short time he lived in peace undisturbed; but when the city was taken by the French, bereft of all his possessions, he followed the young king, Ferdinand, in 1495, to Messina; then went to Corfu; and in 1496 settled in Monopoli, and lastly (1503) in Venice, where his services were employed in negotiating a commercial treaty between Portugal and the Venetian republic (Zurita, "Historia del Rey Don Fernando el Católico," v. 342a).
          
Paragraph 2    חברו ... דון יצחק אבראבניאל ... מחקר (מתחלת הפרשה הנה אנכי שולח מלאך לפניך עד ויקהו לי תרומ' [שמות כג, כ-כד, יח]) ... עוד ... מה הם צורו' היסודות (אם הם האיכיות ראשונים או שניים או דבר אחר) ... בשנת כי אצק מים על צמא ונוזלים על י'ב'ש'ה' אצק רוחי על זרעך וברכתי על צאצאיך

דף א,ב-ב,א: הקדשת הספר אל ר' עשהאל ב"ר יצחק מריאיטי, "מקום כבודו בבולונייא", מאת ראובן ב"ר רפאל צרפתי מאורליאנס, שהביאו לדפוס. כותב, בין השאר: "ויט אלי חסד בעיני השרים ... שם האחד אליעזר ... ושם האחד מרדכי ... בני ... ר' טוביה פואה ... והמה עזרו אלי ... מלבד כל הטובות אשר הטיבו עמדי מיום נטיתי לבי לשרתם בהגהת הדפוס". אחר ההקדשה שיר, פותח: ליצחק מצחק בחורות ושיחות. אוצר השירה והפיוט, ג, עמ' 34, מס' 744. [4] דף: "צורות היסודות". טופס על קלף נמצא באוקספורד, בספריית הבודליאנה. רוב הספר נכלל בפירוש ר' יצחק אברבנאל על התורה.
          
Reference
Description		    EJ; JE; CD-EPI 0106701
        
Associated Images
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Listing Classification
Period
16th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Italy:    Checked
  
Subject
  
Kabbalah:    Checked
  
Characteristic
First Editions:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica