JEWISH HISTORIOGRAPHY - SHELOMO IBN VERGA - Lot 41

JEWISH HISTORIOGRAPHY - SHELOMO IBN VERGA (SALOMON IBN VERGA) - Historia Judaica res judaeorum ab eversa aede hierosolymitana, ad haec fere tempora usque, complexa de hebraeo in latinum versa a Georgio Gentio. Amsterdam, Niellis, 1651, 1 vol. small in 4° square, ep. full stiff vellum covers, smooth spine with handwritten title, speckled edges. Engraved bookplate with Daniel Huet's coat of arms pasted on the first flyleaf and a page of Huet's autograph notes on the verso of the last flyleaf. Written by a famous Spanish rabbi, Salomon Ibn Verga, this book, translated into Latin by the German orientalist Georges Gentius (1618-1687) and published in Hebrew as early as 1550, is both a well-documented chronicle of the persecutions suffered by Jews up to the 16th century, and one of the first profound reflections on the origins of anti-Semitism. The author, a physician, rabbi and statesman, had left Spain for Portugal in 1492, was the victim of the forced conversion of 1497, and was only able to flee the Iberian Peninsula and the Inquisition in 1508. The copy comes from one of the most important French libraries of the period, that of the great humanist Daniel Huet (1630-1721), author of numerous works and memoirs, academician and acquaintance of Mesdames de Sévigné, de La Fayette, de Scudéry and de Rambouillet. As the engraved ex libris reminds us, Daniel Huet, bishop of Soissons and then Avranches, under tutor (chosen by the Duc de Montausier, Madame de Rambouillet's son-in-law) to the Dauphin son of Louis XIV, had, during his lifetime (1692), donated his library to the professed house of the Jesuits, whose handwritten ex libris appears on the title leaf. Daniel Huet rarely annotated his books, and the presence of an entire autograph page at the end is exceptional. With the exception of some light wetness on the title page, a fine copy in period condition.