Auction 101 Part 2 Chassidut and Kabbalah | Jerusalem Printings | Letters and Manuscripts | Objects
Maaseh Toviah – Venice, 1707 – Portrait of the Author Rabbi Toviah the Physician and Many Illustrations – First Edition
Opening: $2,000
Sold for: $4,000
Including buyer's premium
Maaseh Toviah, astronomy and science, medicine and anatomy, by R. Toviah Katz HaRofe (Tobias Cohn, physician). Venice: Bragadin, 1707. First edition.
The title page is dated 1707, while the approbations are dated 1708.
Numerous illustrations and diagrams, including an engraved portrait of the author at age 48 on verso of title page.
A detailed illustration of the human body including the internal organs, paralleling it to a multi-story building, is featured on p. 106a.
The book comprises three parts, with divisional title pages. Approbation by R. David Oppenheim and Venetian rabbis. Poems in praise of the author and book.
On leaves 27-29, Zikaron Livnei Yisrael, a report on the examination of Nathan of Gaza by the rabbis of Venice (first printed on a single leaf in Venice, 1668).
On last page, license of censor in Padua (in Italian), dated 1708.
Signature on title page: "Yosef ibn Zaken". Handwritten inscriptions on several leaves.
[6], 158 leaves. 22 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, including dampstains. Light wear. Marginal tears and open tears to some leaves, repaired with paper. Worming, slightly affecting text. Old binding with leather spine. Damage to binding and spine.