![HEBREW MANUSCRIPT - Mesacheket ba-Tevel ('Laughing at the World'; ethical treatise on the vanity of worldly desires, relying both on Jewish and on classical sources, with moral examples drawn from Greek and Roman history). [Amsterdam, second half of the 17th century]. 38 written leaves, brown ink on paper, 197 x 130 mm., slightly thumbed, good condition, written in an ornate semi-cursive Sephardic hand, contemporary calf gilt, g.e., with owner's stamp 'S. Hirsch' on first flyfleaf.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1998/NYE/1998_NYE_08105_0426_000(105157).jpg?w=1)
細節
HEBREW MANUSCRIPT - Mesacheket ba-Tevel ('Laughing at the World'; ethical treatise on the vanity of worldly desires, relying both on Jewish and on classical sources, with moral examples drawn from Greek and Roman history). [Amsterdam, second half of the 17th century]. 38 written leaves, brown ink on paper, 197 x 130 mm., slightly thumbed, good condition, written in an ornate semi-cursive Sephardic hand, contemporary calf gilt, g.e., with owner's stamp 'S. Hirsch' on first flyfleaf.
Exquisite calligraphic initial word panels, largely floral, with some birds, executed in the text ink, on fols. 1r, 3r, 5v, 9r, and 14r; different vases of flowers, used as space filling devices, on fols. 2v, 8v, and 13v. Both from the stylish script, which is reminiscent of earlier North-African hands, and from the delicate penwork of the calligraphic panels it is clear that this manuscript was produced by a representative of the 17th- and early 18th-century Amsterdam school of Sephardic calligraphy. These penmen, such as Judah Machabeu, Matatiah de Ishack Aboab and Jacob Gadella, wrote for a market of wealthy Amsterdam Portuguese Jews, who valued to deluxe handwritten books, usually in Spanish but occasionally also in Hebrew. It is somewhat unexpected to find an ethical text copied in this style, rather than a polemic text against Christianity or a calligraphic exercise-book. Friedberg, Bet Eked, mem 3801 (as well as other bibliographies), lists a 'Mesacheket ba-Tevel' by the well-known poet Israel ben Moses Najara of Damascus (c. 1555-c. 1625), printed in Safed in 1587. No copy of this work could be inspected for comparison. On Najara see: Enc. Judaica 12: 798-799.
Exquisite calligraphic initial word panels, largely floral, with some birds, executed in the text ink, on fols. 1r, 3r, 5v, 9r, and 14r; different vases of flowers, used as space filling devices, on fols. 2v, 8v, and 13v. Both from the stylish script, which is reminiscent of earlier North-African hands, and from the delicate penwork of the calligraphic panels it is clear that this manuscript was produced by a representative of the 17th- and early 18th-century Amsterdam school of Sephardic calligraphy. These penmen, such as Judah Machabeu, Matatiah de Ishack Aboab and Jacob Gadella, wrote for a market of wealthy Amsterdam Portuguese Jews, who valued to deluxe handwritten books, usually in Spanish but occasionally also in Hebrew. It is somewhat unexpected to find an ethical text copied in this style, rather than a polemic text against Christianity or a calligraphic exercise-book. Friedberg, Bet Eked, mem 3801 (as well as other bibliographies), lists a 'Mesacheket ba-Tevel' by the well-known poet Israel ben Moses Najara of Damascus (c. 1555-c. 1625), printed in Safed in 1587. No copy of this work could be inspected for comparison. On Najara see: Enc. Judaica 12: 798-799.