Printed leaf, letter of Nathan of Gaza to the Jewish community of Aleppo, from the book Een Brief van den dwazen, en Gods-lasterlijken Propheet Nathan Levi van Gaza, aan de Joodse gemeinte van Aleppo [Letter of the mad prophet and blasphemer Nathan Levi of Gaza, to the Jewish community of Aleppo]. [The Hague: Pieter vander Burg, 1720]. Dutch.
Last leaf from appendix of theological-polemical book Klaar en duidelyk vertoog, by Jewish apostate Fridericus (Yaakov) Ragstadt van Weile, printed in the Hague, 1720. In the letter, Nathan of Gaza calls on the Jews of Aleppo to believe in Shabtai Tzvi as messiah.
The letter appears to have been forged by the author for polemical purposes. No other attestation to this letter can be found in Sabbatean sources or in Nathan's original writings.
Fridericus Ragstadt van Weile, born Yaakov Ragstadt, appears to have served as preacher or teacher in his native Cleves before apostatizing to Christianity, after which time he published several theological works.

[1] leaf ([2] printed pages; original pagination: 191-192). 14.5 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains. Worming in one place, affecting text. Small tears and defects to top of leaf, slightly affecting text. Upper margins of leaf trimmed (lacking headers and page numbers). New parchment binding.

Particularly rare. Ragstadt's book is not recorded in the NLI catalog (only two copies recorded in OCLC); the library has a scanned copy of the letter only.

Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.