Bidspirit auction | Manuscript, Arithmetic and Business Calculations

Manuscript, Arithmetic and Business Calculations – Amsterdam, 1736 – Copied by Calligrapher Michael Lopes Pinto for Moshe Yitzchak de Pinto - Manuscript volume, Arithmética, cuentas que sirven para el mercantil [Arithmetic, calculation serving for business]. Amsterdam, 1736. Spanish and some Portuguese; fine cursive script. Engraved title page with details filled in by hand. This work was written and copied by Michael (son of David) Lopes Pinto (ca. 1666-1743), one of the most prominent calligraphers and scribes in the Sephardic-Portuguese community in Amsterdam in the first half of the 18th century. On the last leaf is his calligraphic signature (monogram; see an identical signature in Lot 85). There are at least eleven other extant manuscripts he copied in Dutch and Spanish between 1688-1736 (including siddurim and various polemical works by R. Shaul Levi Mortera, the philosopher Yitzchak Orobio de Castro and others), now held in the Ets Haim library, Rosenthaliana, JTS and University of Columbia collections. The copyist notes on the title page that he wrote the work in his seventieth year (other manuscripts of his give contradictory accounts of his age, but he appears to have been born between 1662-1666). The second leaf features the copyist's dedication to Moshe de Yitzchak (Mosseh de Ischac) de Pinto, a member of the distinguished Pinto mercantile family in Amsterdam (in Portuguese). The work comprises an assortment of advanced mathematical operations and business calculations, carefully written in frames and ruled charts, including basic arithmetic such as multiplication, division, addition, subtraction and fractions, as well as a diverse set of practical examples from business life relating to currency exchange and measurements then used in various countries, exchange rates, interest on loans, calculations necessary for international bills of exchange, division of inheritances and more. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only known manuscript by a Jew of Sephardic-Portuguese origin devoted exclusively to financial arithmetic and commercial calculations. It is based on Gabriel de Sousa Brito's comprehensive work, Norte mercantil y crisol de cuentas, which was published in several volumes in Amsterdam in 1706 and contained numerous examples of financial and commercial calculations. From this work, Lopes-Pinto selected and copied only the principal calculations most essential to a merchant. As this work's calculation are meant to serve a merchant, they provide us with a fascinating glimpse into the business world of the Jews and Marranos from Spain and Portugal in the first half of the 18th century, and as well as the extensive Atlantic and Mediterranean trade networks they managed. This work mentions the central European port cities and trade centers, including Amsterdam, London, Livorno, Venice, Genoa, Hamburg, Lisbon, Madrid, Cádiz, Paris, Antwerp and Danzig; and on the other side of the Atlantic, Curaçao in the Caribbean (p. 27a), where Jews of Portuguese descent founded sugar plantations as early as the 17th century. The calculations also discuss luxury goods that were traded in the major international networks, managed by the Jews and Marranos of the Iberian Peninsula: cinnamon, pepper, clove, nutmeg, sugar, wheat, figs, brandy, silk, textiles, precious metals and diamonds (which were at the time generally imported from India). [1], 56 leaves. Approx. 24 cm. Overall good condition. Stains and creases. Margins of first leaves repaired with tape. Bookplate. Old binding, slightly worn. Reference: 1. Gabriel de Souza Britto, Norte mercantil y crisol de cuentas. Amsterdam, 1706. 2. L. Fuks & R. G. Fuks-Mansfeld, Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana. Leiden, 1973, nos. 196a, 280, 282. 3. L. Fuks & R. G. Fuks-Mansfeld, Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Ets Haim. Leiden, 1975, nos. 92, 106, 206, 208, 213. Provenance: Collection of Mozes Heiman Gans.