Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
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Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $1,000
Estimate: $3,000 - $4,000
Sold for: $2,000
Including buyer's premium
Vikuach Shivah Harim / Dialogo Dos Montes – Dialogue of the Mountains, a play for Shavuot by Reuel Jesurun (Paul de Pina). Amsterdam: Israel Mondovy for Gerhard Johan Janson, 1767. Portuguese and Hebrew.
Rhymed allegorical play, based on the Midrash describing the argument between the mountains before the giving of the Torah, first performed on Shavuot 1624 for the inauguration of the Beit Yaakov synagogue in Amsterdam. Accompanied by seven sermons on the giving of the Torah, "delivered by the mountains", by R. Shaul HaLevi Mortera (Spinoza's rabbi). The text was proofread by R. Yitzchak de Eliyahu Chizkiyahu HaKohen Belinfante, who also added an introduction and poem. The beginning of the book features an approbation from R. Shlomo Shalem – a rabbi of Bulgaria and rabbi of the Portuguese Talmud Torah community in Amsterdam – and introduction of publisher R. Aharon de Chaves. The work is dedicated to David de Aharon Jesurun, probably one of the author's descendants.
At the beginning of the present copy are bound two additional pages – a declaration (Manifesto) by the publisher R. Aharon de Chaves, telling of the ancient provenance of the play and the cause for its new printing, describing its contents and style, and calling for the public to support its distribution. To the best of our knowledge, these leaves are bibliographically unknown.
The author,
Reuel Jesurun (1575-1634), was born Paulo de Pina to a family of Marranos from Lisbon. In 1599 he traveled to Rome to join a Christian order, but on the way there he met the physician Elijah Montalto who dissuaded him. After three years of wandering in Brazil, he settled in Amsterdam in 1604, where he openly returned to Judaism and adopted his Hebrew name. He was a leader of the Beit Yaakov community in Amsterdam, an editor of the community's ordinances and officiated in the Talmud Torah. After marrying his daughter Sarah to the poet and grammarian Moshe son of Gidon Abudiente (1610-1688), he immigrated to Hamburg, where he passed away.
Reuel Jesurun (1575-1634), was born Paulo de Pina to a family of Marranos from Lisbon. In 1599 he traveled to Rome to join a Christian order, but on the way there he met the physician Elijah Montalto who dissuaded him. After three years of wandering in Brazil, he settled in Amsterdam in 1604, where he openly returned to Judaism and adopted his Hebrew name. He was a leader of the Beit Yaakov community in Amsterdam, an editor of the community's ordinances and officiated in the Talmud Torah. After marrying his daughter Sarah to the poet and grammarian Moshe son of Gidon Abudiente (1610-1688), he immigrated to Hamburg, where he passed away.
[12], 100 pages + [2] leaves at beginning of volume (declaration by publisher). Approx. 19 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Creases. Minor marginal tears to first two leaves. Inscriptions on endpapers. Bookplate. Leather binding with gilt inscriptions and decorations, with original cardboard binding. Peeling and wear to leather binding; tears across spine.
See: Kayserling, Biblioteca Española-Portugueza-Judaica, Strasbourg 1890, p. 90.
Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.
Category
The Portuguese Community in the Netherlands and Its Diaspora – Books and Manuscripts
Catalogue Value
Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $1,000
Estimate: $2,000 - $3,000
Sold for: $3,250
Including buyer's premium
Sedur Berachot, Orden de las bendiciones, Conforme el uso del K.K. de España [Year-round Sephardic-rite book of blessings]. Amsterdam: Shmuel Soeiro, son of Menasseh Ben Israel, 1650. Spanish.
Year-round order of blessings and prayers, including Passover Haggadah, counting of the Omer and more. On last leaf, list of prayers based on order of appearance.
Fine copy.
36 leaves. 14.5 cm. Good condition. Light stains. New parchment binding.
Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.
Rare edition. Not recorded in NLI catalogue.
See: Harm Den Boer, Spanish and Portuguese Editions from the Northern Netherlands in Madrid and Lisbon Public Collections, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Autumn 1988), pp. 97-143, no. 63.
Not recorded in Alfei Menashe catalogue, 1927.
Category
The Portuguese Community in the Netherlands and Its Diaspora – Books and Manuscripts
Catalogue Value
Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $1,000
Estimate: $2,500 - $3,000
Sold for: $3,000
Including buyer's premium
Orden de las Oraciones Quotidianas (order of prayers for weekdays and Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah and Purim). The Hague: C. Hoffeling for Selomoh de Mercado & Jahacob Castello, 1734. Spanish.
Spanish siddur for weekdays, Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah and Purim. Miniature format.
Fine engraved title page by D. Coster.
In last pages, calendar for the years 5495-5530 (1734-1769), listing Hebrew and civil dates for beginning praying for rain outside Eretz Israel, for each year.
This siddur is the first Jewish prayer book printed in The Hague. At the time it was printed, The Hague was home to a small Sephardic community numbering only two hundred members.
The present siddur contains the first printed translation of the famous piyyut Lechah Dodi by R. Shlomo Alkabetz (see: H.P. Salomon, Lekha Dodi, The American Sephardi, V, 1-2, pp. 33-42).
[1], 292, [6], 293-533, [6] pages. Approx. 7 cm. Gilt edges. Light, high-quality paper. Good condition. Stains. Old leather binding, with color endpaper. Light wear to binding. Fabric case (with defects).
Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.
Category
The Portuguese Community in the Netherlands and Its Diaspora – Books and Manuscripts
Catalogue Value
Auction 104 Part 1 Rare and Important Items
Oct 21, 2025
Opening: $1,000
Estimate: $2,000 - $3,000
Sold for: $4,250
Including buyer's premium
Orden de leccion de Tora, Nebihim y Quetubim [Order of study of Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim, for the night of Shavuot and Hoshana Rabba]. Amsterdam: Mordehay de Is. Levy Montesinos, 1734. Spanish.
Printed entirely in red ink.
Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Amsterdam was home to a large Sephardi community. Many of its members were descendants of Marranos who emigrated from Spain and Portugal a century after the expulsion. The present book was printed for the members of this community who were not familiar with the Hebrew language.
[56] leaves. 15 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Wear to margins of some leaves. Small marginal tears and open tears to several leaves (tear affecting text to one leaf, without loss). New leather binding, with minor defects.
Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.
Category
The Portuguese Community in the Netherlands and Its Diaspora – Books and Manuscripts
Catalogue Value