Beschreibung:

NIETO, DAVID. Matteh Dan y segunda parte del Cuzari donde se prueva con razones naturales, irefragables demonstraciones, y reales consequencias, la verdad dela Ley Mental, recebida por nuestros Sabios autores de la Misnah, y Guemara. London: Thomas Ilive, 5474 [1714]. Spanish with Hebrew in opposite column. 4to, modern calf gilt; minor staining, lacks Ttt3, Ttt4 (blanks?) . Kayserling, p. 77, Roth, Marrano Typography, p. 8; Den Boer, Catalogue [...] Ets Haim/Livraria Montezinos, n. 431. The Magnum Opus of David Nieto, Haham and Av Bet Din of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation Sha'arei Shamayim, Bevis Marks of London. According to Cecil Roth "A work with which Nieto's name will always be associated". In the preface, Haham Nieto states that he has called it the Rod of Dan because it is a powerful and just rod to smite the foreheads of the Karaites. He regarded it as a supplement to the Cuzary of Judah Halevi (published in Spanish in 1663), the purpose of which was to demonstrate the veracity of the Written Law, while the object of his own work was to prove the validity of the Oral Law. He composed it as a weapon against ex-Marranos to whom rabbinic Judaism was both novel and unacceptable. It has been frequently rerpinted as a defense of orthodox Judaism (last edition: Jerusalem, 1958). Like Cuzary, Matteh Dan takes the form of a dialogue between the pagan King of the Khazars and a Jew. See EJ, s.v. "Nieto, David".