Auction 53 - Rare and Important Items

Manuscript - Anthology of Medical Books, in the Handwriting of Rabbi Mordechai Finzi - Legnago, Italy, 1466

Opening: $5,000
Sold for: $6,250
Including buyer's premium
Manuscript, anthology of medical composition, written by Rabbi Mordechai Finzi. Legnago (Italy), 1466.
Complete manuscript. Wide-spaced charming handwriting, in ancient Italian Hebrew script. Composed of four medical compositions, all in Hebrew:
· "Practica", by Maestro Pietro da Tossignano - Long composition about illnesses and medications. Written at the end of the composition: "The ninth article by Pietro da Tossignano …copied by R. Yosef disciple of the physicians".
· "Sefer HaSamim", by Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon - the Rambam, about drugs and cures for poisoned wounds and snake bites. Hebrew translation by R. Moses ibn Tibbon.
· "Ma'amar BeRefualt HaThorim" [Treatise on Hemorrhoids], by Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon - the Rambam. Hebrew translation by an unknown translator [possibly by R. Moses ibn Tibbon].
· "Leonfrankina Haktana", medical guidance for various issues [injuries and illnesses].
At the end of the Rambam's treatise on hemorrhoids is a colophon by the scribe, R. Mordechai Finzi: "I have completed to write this, I Mordechai Finzi, from a very flawed book, here in Legnago on the 28th of the month of January 1466".
Original vellum binding, inscriptions and signatures of "ISH GER" - Avraham Yosef Shlomo Gratziano [Italian Torah scholar who lived in the 17th century. A well-known collector of books and manuscripts].
The copier, R. Mordechai Finzi was a 15th century Italian scholar. Very proficient in the wisdom of the Jewish calendar (constellations and New Moons), he wrote compositions on this subject. The calendars that he wrote were Hebrew incunabula printed before 1480 in the printing press of Avraham Konat. Manuscripts of the compositions that he wrote, translated and copied, exist in a number of libraries around the world.
Apparently, besides the article on hemorrhoids [printed
recently by Zisman Mountner: The Rambam, Medical Writings, Part 4, Musad HaRav Kook, Jerusalem 1965], the rest of the compositions were never printed.
[98] leaves. High-quality paper. 22 cm. Good condition. Stains, worming in several places. Damages and tears to vellum binding.
Rare and Important Items
Rare and Important Items