Bidspirit auction | ABRABANEL, DON ISAAC. Rosh Amanah

ABRABANEL, DON ISAAC. Rosh Amanah [on the principles of faith]. FIRST EDITION. Initial text page with a poem by the Author’s eldest son, philosopher Judah Abrabanel (Leone Ebreo) enclosed by a metalcut, white-on-black historiated border of animals designed by the Marrano, Alfonso de Cordoba. Extensive manuscript notations throughout  in Latin and Hebrew in a 16th-century hand. ff. (20). Stained, opening page trimmed and laid onto larger leaf. Modern gilt-tooled emerald crushed morocco. Sm. folio. Vinograd, Constantinople 9; Mehlman 1189. Constantinople, David & Samuel ibn Nahmias, 1505. Rosh Amanah is Abrabanel’s most important work on philosophical-theological questions. The work is devoted to championing the Maimonidean Thirteen Articles of Faith against the attacks of Chasdai Crescas (Or Hashem) and Yoseph Albo (Sepher Ha’Ikarim). The elaborate metal-cut border around the opening pages of this work was the first decorative border to be used in a Hebrew book.