Bidspirit auction | Maaseh Toviah – Venice, 1707

Maaseh Toviah – Venice, 1707 – Portrait of Author Rabbi Toviah the Physician and Many Illustrations – First Edition - 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. Portrait of R. Toviah Katz the physician, garbed in elegant dress and wearing a fur cap, holding a book and an armillary sphere. Around it is a Hebrew caption: ”If you ask my name or my homeland and country or my family, I will answer you faithfully that I am Toviah HaKohen from a family of scribes and from a town of scholars, the faithful city, Metz in France, may G-d secure it. And now I am 48 years old: in the month Eitanim [=Tishrei] of this year, 5461. And I dwell among my people in Constantinople: and may He Who enabled me to bring my thoughts into fruition, grant me the merit to see Jerusalem rebuilt”. 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. R. Toviah HaKohen the physician (Tobias Cohn, 1652-1729) was an Ashkenazic Torah scholar. Born in Metz, he studied in the Cracow yeshiva, where he was ordained. He later studied medicine in the University of Padua in Italy, and lived in Constantinople where he served as physician for the sultan's court, also working on Torah and scientific writing and corresponding with the leading Torah scholars of his generation, including his stepbrother the Chavot Yair. His encyclopedic Maaseh Toviah is highly famous and was published in many editions. He immigrated to Jerusalem in 1715, where he remained active until his passing. Ownership inscriptions in Sephardic script on title page: ”R. Matzliach HaLevi”, ”Consecrated to the Beit HaLevi yeshiva”, ”R. Matzliach HaLevi, consecrated to his yeshiva”. R. Matzliach HaLevi (d. 1846), a rabbi of Izmir, owner of a yeshiva and home to rabbinic conference as well as a large library. R. Chaim Palachi praised him as a hidden tzaddik who secretly donated large sums of charity and supported Torah scholars, the poor and orphans generously. R. Chaim Sonsol's eulogy mentions that he had a large library in yeshiva, which was burnt in a fire. Other inscriptions (some deleted with ink) on leaf [2], and pp. 7a, 93a. Handwritten glosses and additions in various places. [6], 158 leaves. 21.5 cm. Fair-good condition, first and last leaves in fair condition. Stains. Marginal tears and open tears to main title page and other leaves (mainly to first and last leaves), affecting text in several places (including title frame and portrait frame and its caption, repaired with paper filling, with handwritten replacements). Worming, affecting text, partially repaired with paper. New parchment binding, with leather fasteners. Bookplate of Mozes Heiman Gans.