Auction 105 Books | Letters and Manuscripts | Esther Scrolls and Jewish Ceremonial Art
Portrait of Rabbi Toviah the Physician – Venice, 1707 – Engraving from His Book Maaseh Tuviah
Opening: $500
Sold for: $625
Including buyer's premium
Portrait of R. Toviah Katz (Tobias Cohn) the physician, engraving from first edition of his book Maaseh Toviah. [Venice, 1707].
Portrait of R. Toviah Katz the physician, garbed in elegant dress and wearing a fur cap, holding a book and an armillary sphere. Around it is a Hebrew caption: "If you ask my name or my homeland and country or my family, I will answer you faithfully that I am Toviah HaKohen from a family of scribes and from a town of scholars, the faithful city, Metz in France, may G-d secure it. And now I am 48 years old: in the month Eitanim [=Tishrei] of this year, 5461. And I dwell among my people in Constantinople: and may He Who enabled me to bring my thoughts into fruition, grant me the merit to see Jerusalem rebuilt".
R. Toviah HaKohen the physician (Tobias Cohn, 1652-1729) was an Ashkenazic Torah scholar. Born in Metz, he studied in the Cracow yeshiva, where we was ordained. He later studied medicine in the University of Padua in Italy, and lived in Constantinople where he served as physician for the sultan's court, also working on Torah and scientific writing and corresponding with the leading Torah scholars of his generation, including his stepbrother the Chavot Yair. His encyclopedic Maaseh Toviah is highly famous and was published in many editions. He immigrated to Jerusalem in 1715, where he remained active until his passing.
Engraving: approx. 15X20 cm. Matted: approx. 40X48 cm. Fair condition. Stains and wear. Tears and open tears, affecting frame and margins of engraving, repaired with paper.
Portraits, Prints and Graphic Works
Portraits, Prints and Graphic Works