Beschreibung:

MESSIANIC SERMONS, PARTLY AUTOGRAPH, BY RABBI SOLOMON MOLKHO, [ITALY: CA. 1530-1532] 62 folios (7 3/4 x 5 7/8 in.; 197 x 150 mm) (collation: i-ii16, iii10 [iii11-12 removed], iv6, v14 [v15-16 removed]) on paper (ff. 32, 61-62 blank); watermarks similar to Briquet 3413-3415 (Vicenza, 1528 through Laibach, 1530); modern foliation in pencil in Arabic numerals in upper-outer corner of rectos; written partly (ff. 1-42) in calligraphic Ashkenazic-Italian semi-cursive script in brown ink and partly (ff. 43-60) in elegant Sephardic semi-cursive script in brown ink (becoming more cursive starting on f. 49r; square script used on ff. 44r, 60v); single-column text of twenty-four lines; lightly ruled in pen; justification of lines via dilation or contraction of letters, abbreviation (with final letter[s] sometimes written by the scribe of ff. 1-42 in the margin), and insertion of dashes and other space fillers; catchwords on versos of ff. 1-7, 16-23, 33-38, 50-59; marginalia and corrections in author’s hand intermittently throughout. Elaborate kabbalistic diagram on f. 44r; tapering text on f. 60v. Slight scattered staining and dampstaining; some marginalia cropped (ff. 4, 52 with folded margins preserved from trimming); ink stain on ff. 55v-56r obscuring a few words; single wormhole on ff. 56-62, without loss of text. Modern blind-tooled calf, slightly scuffed; modern paper flyleaves and pastedowns. Accompanied by a maroon cloth-covered collection of scholarly essays about the manuscript with gilt title on upper board. One of only two known autograph manuscripts by the famous messianic harbinger and martyr Rabbi Solomon Molkho. The fifteenth century was a time of intense messianic excitement and speculation. Beginning already in its first third, news spread of the return of the Ten Lost Tribes, and toward its close a number of Jewish elites, particularly in Italy, undertook calculations of the end time. This eschatological effervescence came to a head when David Reuveni (ca. 1483-ca. 1538), an adventurer who (at times) claimed to be the son and brother of Jewish kings who ruled the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh in the Arabian “Desert of Habor,” arrived in Italy in the autumn of 1523. Supported by some local Jews and by the great humanist Cardinal Egidio da Viterbo, Reuveni was eventually granted an audience with Pope Clement VII, who issued him a letter of recommendation that allowed him access to King John (João) III of Portugal in 1525. While the king was initially kindly disposed to Reuveni and treated him like an official ambassador, his attitude changed as he came to suspect that Reuveni was inciting crypto-Jews to revert to Judaism; he subsequently ordered him to leave the country. One of those inspired by Reuveni to reclaim his Jewish heritage was Diogo Pires. Pires was born in Lisbon in 1501 to crypto-Jewish parents and, at the tender age of 21, was appointed a visiting judge to the Casa da Suplicação (Court of Appeals) of Portugal. After encountering Reuveni at the royal court, Pires circumcised himself in secret and adopted the Hebrew name Solomon Molkho (possibly actually pronounced “Malko” in reference to 2 Sam. 22:51). He then fled Portugal and eventually made his way to Salonika, where he joined the beit midrash of Rabbi Joseph Taitatsak (1465-1546), under whom he studied Kabbalah. A gifted rhetorician and charismatic leader, Molkho soon gathered a following of his own, and at his students’ urging he published a collection of messianic sermons in Salonika in 1529 (in later editions, the book came to be titled Sefer ha-mefo’ar). In the same year, he relocated to Ancona, where he continued preaching about the coming redemption, attracting large crowds of both Jews and Christians. He spent the following three years criss-crossing northern and central Italy, spreading his messianic messages wherever he went. In Venice, a Jewish doctor opposed to his agitations accused him of being a judaizing Christian, prompting