Bidspirit auction | (SHABTHAI TZVI). THREE RARE ENGRAVINGS

(SHABTHAI TZVI). THREE RARE ENGRAVINGS bearing witness to the widespread and lasting impact of this popular and polarizing figure.      * THE FIRST ENGRAVING is a large portrait of Shabbetai Zevi with two smaller insets portraying the ship he sailed to Istanbul and his imprisonment in that city. After two months’ internment there, Shabbetai was transferred to the state prison at Abydos, on which journey select followers were allowed to accompany him. As a result, Sabbatians referred to the fortress as Migdal Oz (Tower of Strength).     * THE SECOND ENGRAVING is an image of Shabbetai incarcerated in Abydos, with his followers paying him homage.      * THE THIRD ENGRAVING depicts former followers of Shabbetai Zevi in Salonika performing acts of penance to atone for the sin of having believed in a false messiah. Each finely matted. 13 x 8 inches (33 x 19 cm). (Köthen, 1701/2). THREE ENGRAVINGS DEPICTING THE FALSE MESSIAH SHABBETAI ZEVI AND EPISODES RELATING TO HIS LIFE.     This rare group of engravings was first published in 1701 in Köthen (capital of the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld in Saxony-Anhalt) and subsequently republished in 1702 in “Anabaptisticum et Enthusiasticum Pantheon, ” a work compiled by Johann Friedrich Corvinus that attacked heretics, mystics, false messiahs, and anyone who was not of the strict Lutheran faith. (SEE PREVIOUS LOT for text).