Gentius Georgius Translator (1 results)
More imagesHilkhot De'ot sive Canones Ethici R. Moseh Meimonidis, Hebraeorum fapientissimi, Ex Hebraeo in Latinum versi, uberioribusque Notis illustrati a Georgio Gentio, ad virum doctissimum praestantissimumque Gerebrandum Anslo.
MAIMONIDES (Moses Ben Maimon); GENTIUS, Georgius (translator).
Published by Amsterdam Joan and Cornelius Blaeu, 1640
- Hardcover
- First Edition
Seller: Shapero Rare Books, London, United KingdomShapero Rare Books
Contact seller5-star sellerCondition: Used
£ 2,250.00
£ 15.00 shippingShips from United Kingdom to U.S.A.Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketFirst edition; small 4to (21 x 16 cm); modern grey cloth with gilt floral device to upper cover, printer's device to title page, woodcut floriated initials and tailpieces, two woodcut diagrams and two tables, small loss to upper right corner of title and some loss to margins of index leaf, very minor worming to upper right corne…r throughout, chips to edges of the last leaf, faint waterstains throughout; text in Latin and Hebrew; a very good copy. First edition of Gentius's Latin translation of 'Hilkhot De'ot', from the first book of Maimonides's 'Mishneh Torah', with a commentary. 'Hilkhot De'ot' is part of the monumental work 'Mishneh Tora'. Book one, 'Sefer Madah', is comprised of several chapters in which Maimonides outlines the rules of ethical behaviour in relation to the halakhic law, interestingly applying Aristotelian virtues to a Jewish legal context. This is Gentius's first publication and one of the earliest translations of a complete section of Maimonides's extensive compendium of Jewish law into Latin, beautifully printed in parallel with the original Hebrew. Georgius Gentius (1618-1687) was a German Lutheran orientalist who studied in Leiden, and later with Amsterdam rabbis; two of them, R. Isaac da Fonseca Aboab and R. Moses d'Aguilar, contributed to this edition with two laudatory poems. In the introduction Gentius praises Maimonides. This edition is beautifully illustrated with attractive diagrams and tables showing the relationship between vices and virtues. Heller (The Seventeenth Century Hebrew Book) Vol. 1, pp. 564-565.
