Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Dissertationes philologico-theologicae... Accesserunt, R. Isaaci Abarbenelis, Hispani, aliquot elegantes [et] erudiatae dissertationes (Philologico-theological Dissertations, along with Various Elegant and Learned Dissertations by Rabbi Isaac Abravanel of Spain)

Buxtorf, Johann II; Isaac Abravanel

Basel: Johann Jakob Decker, 1662. Second edition. Hardcover. Two parts, small quarto. [rev. par.]4, 2[rev. par.]2, A-3R2 (= 256 leaves). [12], 499, [1, privilegium]pp. Pagination and register continuous. Title within double-ruled border; second work with half-title. Woodcut lettrines and ornaments. Later half vellum over speckled paper boards; manuscript title at spine. Upper two inches of spine perished. Text moderately embrowned or foxed throughout. A fairly good, complete copy.

Second, augmented edition, reprinting six of the seven dissertations from the 1645 edition, and adding two new ones: Vindiciae praecedentis Dissertationes and De lotione manuum Judaica. Selections in Latin translation from Isaac Abravanel's biblical commentaries follow on a variety of topics: the longevity of the patriarchs; the state and the king's law; the miraculous stoppage of the sun in Joshua's time; the sin of David in conducting a census; the name of Moses; the types of idolatry mentioned in Sacred Scripture; and the division of the biblical books. Father and son each relied upon the works of the Portuguese Jewish philosopher, exegete, and statesman, Isaac ben Judah Abravanel (1437-1508), a staunch opponent of the philosophical allegory exemplified in the exegetical approach of Maimonides. Abravanel's commentaries on the earlier prophets (excerpts of which appear in the present work), emerge, in part, as a response to the political difficulties he faced in the wake of the rebellion of Portuguese nobels against Joao II. "Abrabanel attributed his misfortunes to the fact that he had wasted his time in the service of an earthly ruler. He therefore decided to devote the rest of his life to religious study" (Enc. Jud. 2:104).

The son of the celebrated Hebraist of the same name, Johann Buxtorf II (1599-1664) followed his father as professor of Hebrew at Basel in 1629. In addition to completing the elder Buxtorf's Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon (Basel, 1639), the younger Buxtorf edited a new Latin translation of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, and gained notoriety for defending the antiquity of the Hebrew vowel points against the (correct) view of their later date advanced in his day most effectively by Louis Cappel.

Provenance: old stamp of the University of Heidelberg at the verso of the title page; paper label with shelf-mark in ink at the spine. Good-. Item #49294

References: Prijs 268. Library of John Locke 551a, along with various of the elder Buxtorf’s standard aids to Hebrew grammar and lexicography.

Price: $450.00