Beschreibung:

MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL. Thesovro dos Dinim que o povo de Israel, he obrigado saber, e observar. Amsterdam: [n.p.], 5470 [1710]. 5 parts in one volume, 8vo, contemporary mottled calf gilt, copper clasps; light marginal staining. Not in Kayserling, not in Da Silva Rosa; Rodr.Castro, 561; Palau, 162813; Den Boer, Catalogue [...] Ets Haim/Livraria Montezinos, n. 412. This edition contains the five complete parts of the Thesouro dos dinim (Thesaurus of Laws), which had been previously published in sections from 1645 to 1647. This code of Jewish law in Portuguese contains all the precepts the Jews "are required to know and obey", and is arranged as follows: 1) prayer, 2) moral precepts, 3) fasts and festivals, 4) dietary laws, 5) "economic principles", including treatises on marriage, inheritance, agriculture, etc. The book was intended for conversos in Amsterdam and in other communities of Western Europe who were in the process of rejoining the Jewish faith. Menasseh prefaced his fifth and last part with a dedication to the "Women of his Nation", a unique instance of a Jewish text addressed to women.