Bidspirit auction | Ẓurat HaBayit HaNeḥrav – Ḥanukkat

Ẓurat HaBayit HaNeḥrav – Ḥanukkat HaBayit by Rabbi Moshe Ḥefez. Venice, 1696. First edition. A complete and elegant copy, including the rare folded map - The book contains numerous illustrations depicting the structure and vessels of the Temple, as well as a large folded map showing the plan of the Temple, accompanied by an additional explanatory leaf – all present and in excellent preservation. Rabbi Moshe Ḥefez (1663–1711) was born in Trieste, Italy. He was educated under the sages of Venice, particularly Rabbi Shlomo ben Yeshayah Nizza, and became renowned as a scholar, poet, philosopher, and student of the natural sciences. A poem by him was printed as early as 1678 in a Venice edition of the Bible, entitled Torat Elohim Chai La’et Kazot. In a manuscript copy of Machberot Immanuel by Immanuel of Rome, copied in Venice around the same period, there appears a brief commentary by Rabbi Moshe Ḥefez on the poem Lashod Velarash Yil’ag Yischak. In 1696 he published in Venice his celebrated work Ḥanukkat HaBayit – The Form of the Destroyed Temple, describing the structure, dimensions, and vessels of the Temple according to traditional sources. After the death of his son Gershom in a plague in 1699, Rabbi Moshe Ḥefez published his son’s book Yad Charuzim, including within it the eulogy for his son delivered by his teacher Rabbi Shlomo Nizza. A decade later, in 1710, he published in Venice his noted commentary on the Torah, Melekhet Machshevet, which went through many editions and remains well known. Rabbi Moshe Ḥefez passed away at the age of only forty-eight, on the 30th of Cheshvan, 1711. The printing of this book was carried out in two stages: first the text was printed with blank spaces left for the illustrations, and later the engraved images were added by impression. [4], 52, [2] folded plates. 21 cm. Very good condition. Fine white paper. Minor age stains. New leather binding.