Victoria adversus impios Hebraeos, in qua tum ex sacris litteris tum ex dictis Talmud ac cabbalistarum, by Porchetus Salvagus. Paris: Guillaume des Palins, 1520 (printing details in the colophon). Latin. First edition.

Illustrated title page; decorated initial words (woodcuts).​

A rare copy of the first edition of "Victory Against the Impious Hebrews" by Porchetus. A copy of this edition was owned by Martin Luther, who translated parts of it into German and included them in his work "On the Jews and Their Lies" (Luther's personal copy, with his handwritten notes, is currently preserved in the Badische Landesbibliothek [catalogue number: 42B 297 RH]).

The book was composed in the early 14th century by the Italian theologian Porchetus Salvagus (deceased ca. 1315) and presented a series of arguments in favor of Christianity drawn from the Holy Scriptures and from Jewish writings, namely, the Talmud and Kabbalah. The title of the book was likely chosen in response to the Jewish polemical work Sefer Nitzachon (Book of Victory), which presented arguments against the Church Fathers and their interpretations of the Hebrew Bible.

This first edition was printed by the Dominican friar Agostino Giustiniani and, upon its publication, became one of the first printed books describing Jewish Kabbalah. It includes a preface by the printer, and the title page features small illustrations of two scholars, a Jew and a Christian, each pointing to his book (the Jewish scholar's book is formatted with divided margins, reminiscent of the Talmudic page layout). ​

xciiii, [1] leaves. 27.5 cm. Good condition. Stains and creases. Tears to several leaves (some with losses). Few handwritten notes. Decorated initial words. Non-original binding and endpapers. Binding covered with embroidered fabric, damaged and frayed at the spine and edges (with a piece of the original binding glued onto the spine).