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LOT 234:
MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL.
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MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL.
Conciliator.
FIRST EDITION IN LATIN. Marginalia.
pp. (8), 240. Browned. Contemporary vellum. 4to. Silva Rosa 16.
Amsterdam: by the Author 1633
Written with a Marrano readership in mind, offering an insight into Rabbinic Judaism by reconciling seemingly discordant passages in the Bible.
The Conciliador, Menasseh’s magnum opus, was first issued in Spanish, and a year later in Latin. It assured its author a place of prominence in Amsterdam’s Jewish community.
The work attempts resolution to no less than 180 seeming discrepancies in the Pentateuch. The breadth of Menasseh’s encyclopedic knowledge is vast, the Conciliador contains citations from 221 Jewish and 54 non-Jewish authorities. “No reader could fail to be impressed by the amazing range of titles which the author proudly appended to the work” (Cecil Roth, A Life of Menasseh ben Israel: Rabbi, Printer, and Diplomat (Philadelphia, 1945) p. 88).
