SAMUEL (Rabbi). Epistola contra Judaeorum errores. With the spurious epistle of Pontius Pilate to Emperor Tiberius, De indubitata Jesu resurrectione. [Nuremberg:] Caspar Hochfeder, 19th March 1498.

細節
SAMUEL (Rabbi). Epistola contra Judaeorum errores. With the spurious epistle of Pontius Pilate to Emperor Tiberius, De indubitata Jesu resurrectione. [Nuremberg:] Caspar Hochfeder, 19th March 1498.

Chancery 4° (180 x 135 mm). Collation: a-c6 d4 (a1r title Epistola Rabbi Samuelis Israhelite missa ad Rabbi Ysaac magistrum in subiulmeta. civitate regis Morochorum, a1v Incipit Epistola ... Conservet te deus o frater, d3v Sequitur epistola quam misit pontius pilatus, incipit: Nuper accidit et ego ipse probari iudeos per eorum invidiam se suosque posteros crudeli damnatione periisse, d4r colophon: Impressa est Epistola Rabbi Samuelis: una cum testimonijs duodecim patriarcharum ... arte literaria perfamati Casparis hochfeders nuerenbergensis, decimanona Martij. Anno salvatoris nostri. M.cccc.xcviij. Laus deo, d4v blank). 22 leaves. Gothic types 8:107 (title) and 9:88 (text). Double column. 35 lines. Rubricated. (Inner margins strengthened, some staining.) 19th-century sheep-backed boards (rubbed).

One of about twenty incunable editions of this anti-Jewish writing, a Christian polemic based on Alfonso Buenhombre's 14th-century Latin translation of the 12th-century Arabic treatise, Ifham al-Yahud (Confutation of the Jews), also called Kitab-al-nakd wal-Ibram. The author was Samuel Abu Nasr ibn Abbas, son of Judah ibn Abbas of Fez, who converted from Judaism to Islam. In the original work he claimed to prove the prophetic character of Jesus and Mohammed, and that too many laws have been added to the Torah by the Mishnah and Gemara. Versions were issued in most European languages (including Russian) until this century; an English translation by T. Calvert, The Blessed Jew of Marocco, was published at York in 1648. M. Steinschneider, Polemische und apologetische Literatur in arabischer Sprache, zwischen Muslimen, Christen und Juden (1877) pp. 26, 137. HC *14270; BMC II, 478 (IA. 8195); Goff S-113.