With Exceptional Manuscript Facsimile Leaves

[On the Temple of Solomon] Libellus effigiei templi Salomonis, in qvo fabricae templi & omnium ejus vasorum instrumentorumque, quibus olim administrabatur structura, ac forma, breviter describitur... [Second title page in Hebrew: Sefer tavnit hekhal: Hibro bi-leshon la'az ve-gam ha'atiḳo li-leshon ha-kodesh]

Jacob Judah Leon; Jacobi Leonitii Hebraei

Notes: The first Hebrew edition of Leon's monograph on the temple of Solomon (it was first published in Middelburg, the Netherlands, in 1642). Leon (1603–1675) was a Spanish-Portuguese rabbi who built a model of the Temple of Solomon that was exhibited in many cities in Europe. This book is the companion publication to go with the exhibition. As a result, it was published in several European languages, including Dutch, Spanish, French, English, and this Hebrew version.

At the front of the book are a Latin title page, a Hebrew title page, three pages communicating printing privileges, and two pages of laudatory poems by several Jewish writers, including the author himself.

This version was printed by Marcus Levy (Samuel ben Moses Halevi). Levy had previously worked as the foreman at Immanuel Benveniste's printing house, and his own imprint, "the first to act as independent Ashkenazic printers in Amsterdam, lasted from 1648 to 1651 [and] produced twenty books in Hebrew and Yiddish... Most of the works are small and did not require much capital to print; they were probably financed for the greater part by the authors and editors." (Quoted from Fuks and Fuks-Mansfield, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Netherlands, 1585–1815, which cites this book as no. 266.)

38 leaves, foliated in Hebrew. Small quarto, [1]–9^4, 10^2. 5-1/2 by 7-1/4 inches.

See A. L. Shane, "Rabbi Jacob Judah Leon (Templo) of Amsterdam (1603–1675) and his connections with England" in Transactions & Miscellanies (Jewish Historical Society of England), vol. 25, 1975, and A. K. Offenberg, "Bibliography of the Works of Jacob Jehudah Leon (Templo)" in Studia Rosenthaliana, vol. 12, no. 1/2 (July 1978). Offenberg describes a different issue of this title, with a four-leaf gathering in Portuguese inserted in the middle of the first gathering.

Edition + Condition: A good copy in stained original vellum, stamped with a central design and border. Several markings in pencil (blue and black) on the front endpapers. Minor paper repairs to some leaves; some staining. Last two leaves in good manuscript facsimile. One of four ties present.

Publication: Amsterdam: Apud Levi Marcus, 1650.

Item No: #307479

Price: $1,250