Physical Description

First edition. [10], 254 ff., quarto, 237:1840 mm., usual light age and damp staining, extra wide margins in gild. A very good copy bound in later quarter leather and marbled paper over boards.

Detail 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. In Hebrew with Spanish translation in parellel columns, (a Hebrew only edition was also printed). 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 God. Nieto identified Nature with God; 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 God's existence and of retribution.

Hebrew Description

... יוכיח... אמתת תורה שבעל פה... עשיתיו אני... דוד בן... ר' פנחס ניטו... שנת לשון חכמים תטיב ד'ע'ת'

עברית וספרדית זו מול זו. באותו מקום ובאותה שנה יצאה גם הוצאה בעברית בלבד.

References

CD-NLI 0152339; 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.