Beschreibung:

1. Ma'aseh Nissim and Poems, [Italy, 17th-18th century]
Fols. 1r-5v: Ma'aseh Nissim, an account by Solomon Eliezer Ghirondi of the rescue of the Jews of Padua from an attack by a mob in 1684.Fols. 6v-8v: Several unpublished poems, one of them on a controversy between the soul and the body, attributed to Abraham ibn Ezra.Fols. 11r-12r: Treatise on the order in which the sciences should be studied by Abu-Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi. According to M. Steinschneider, the translator from the Arabic was probably Kalonymus.
Sotheby’s is grateful to Menahem Schmelzer z”l and Benjamin Richler for cataloguing this manuscript.
ProvenanceMordecai Samuel Ghirondi — Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 233)
Physical Description12 leaves on paper, 7 ½ x 4 7/8 inches; 190 x 125 mm, written in various Italian semi-cursive scripts, modern foliation in pencil; upper half of fol. 7 cropped, a few stains and smudges, library stamps on first and last pages. Old wrappers.
LiteratureHirschfeld (ms. no. 489); Ma'aseh Nissim published from this manuscript by M. Benayahu, in Sinai, 31 (1952), pp. 187-193; M. Steinschneider, Die hebräischen Ubersetzungen des Mittelalters (Berlin, 1893), p. 254; see also, M. Zonta, La "Classificazione della Scienze" di al-Farabi nella tradizione ebraica (Torino, 1992), pp. 116-122, this manuscript served as one of the sources for this edition
2. Kos Tanhumin, Joshua Joseph ben David Levi, Italy, 1708
Fol. 1r: Inscription in Italian: Nella stamparia Bragadina con Licenza de Superiore. The booklet was published in 1708 in Venice and may have been printed based on this manuscript.Fol. 2r: A list of the names of the leadership (maamad) of the community.Fol. 4r: Introduction, signed in 1708.Fols. 4v-17v: Poems, in the form of a dialogue.
This is an autograph copy of an elegy on the death of Moses Levi Muggia the sofer, scribe of the Ashkenazi community of Venice.  Muggia was also a rabbi, author, and poet. He died on Tevet in 1707, and this elegy was delivered at a memorial service, which took place on the first anniversary of his death in the great synagogue of Venice.  
ProvenanceSolomon Halberstam (shelf no. 379)
Physical Description17 leaves on paper, 7 x 5 1/8 inches; 179 x 131 mm, written in an eighteenth-century Italian cursive script, catchwords, modern foliation in pencil; first leaf soiled and stained, library stamp on first and last leaves. Wrappers; spine split.
LiteratureHirschfeld (ms. no. 381); J. Schirman, Anthologie der hebraeischen Dichtung in Italien, (1934), pp. 342-346 (in Hebrew), where some of the poems are published on the basis of the printed edition; D. Bregman, A Bundle of Gold: Hebrew Sonnets from the Renaissance and the Baroque, (1997), p. 431 (in Hebrew)
3. Poems, Scribe: Graziadio di Abram Bon(?), [Italy, 18th century]
Fols. 9v, 10v, 17r, 19r, 20v, 22r, 24r, 25v, 26v, 28r: Poems by Moses Zacuto.Fol. 18: Poem in Ladino.Fol. 45: Ashkenazi Shabbath songs.Fol. 57r: End of pizmonim, beginning with ale”f.Fol. 57v: Pizmonim and bakashot beginning with the letter be”th.Fol. 59r: The service for the day preceding the New Moon.This volume is composed of various manuscripts and the vocalization of the poems is very unconventional.
Sotheby’s is grateful to Menahem Schmelzer z”l and Benjamin Richler for cataloguing this manuscript.
ProvenanceMoise Baruch Caravaglio of Guardi (?) (owner’s inscription, in Italian, fol. 26v) — Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 267 and note listing some of the poems on the front flyleaf)
Physical Description69 leaves on paper, 5 ½ x 4 inches; 140 x 102 mm, written in various Italian and Sefardi scripts in brown ink, decorative pen work (fols. 4v, 43r, 54v), catchwords; repairs to tears on fols. 26, 45, and 49, long internal knife cut on fol. 54 touching several lines of text, margins of fol. 56 cropped, scattered spotting and staining, occasional browning, a few inner margins strengthened. Marbled boards, calf spine.
LiteratureHirschfeld (ms. no. 235)
4. Et ha-Zamir, [Italy, 18th-19th century]
This poem was written by A”v shalo”m (acronym) for the wedding of Mih-ha-Zekenim (del Vecchio) to his bride, Rebecca (fol. 3v). The poem is addressed to Gabriel Yisrael Joseph Hayyim Trieste, the brother of the bride’s mother, in gratitude to his charitable house. The poems of Petrarch are also mentioned on fol. 3v.
Sotheby’s is grateful to Menahem Schmelzer z”l and Benjamin Richler for cataloguing this manuscript.
ProvenanceSolomon Halberstam (shelf no. 401)
Physical Description5 leaves on paper, 7 x 4 7/8 inches; 179 x 124 mm, ruled in pencil, written in black ink in an eighteenth-nineteenth-century Italian cursive script, modern foliation in pencil; library stamp on first leaf, Library buckram binding.
LiteratureHirschfeld (ms. no. 380)