Ets Haim Library ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]: A ‘Monuments Men’ manuscript

The only textual witness to Obstaculos y opoçiçiones contra la religion xptiana en Amsterdam is a copy made in 1712 that comprises the first 85 numbered folios of ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206], which I have translated in the present volume from Spanish into English as Arguments against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam. MS. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] is stored at the Ets Haim Library of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam. For those who wish to consult the Spanish text of Arguments, a digital version of ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] is available on the Ets Haim Bibliotheek (Ets Haim Library) website. The remaining 95 numbered folios in the manuscript include a copy of another work by the same author, Preguntas que hizo un clerigo de Ruan de Francia alas quales respondio el exelente, y eminentissimo señor H.H. Saul Levy Mortera, doctor çelebre y prophesor, de la divina theologia, y predicador de la naçion judaica en la ynsigne, y opulenta çiudad de Amsterdam (Questions posed by a French cleric that are answered by the excellent and very eminent Mr. Hacham [Wise Man] Saul Levy Mortera, celebrated doctor and teacher of divine theology and a preacher of the Jewish nation in the magnificent and opulent city of Amsterdam). The two works included in ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] were written by Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira (b. c. 1590-d. 1660), a native Venetian whose surname is sometimes spelled ‘Mortera’ as on the title page of ms. EH/ LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] (see Plate 1). Morteira wrote Arguments around 1650, toward the end of a four-decade-long career as chief rabbi in Amsterdam, during which time he presided over a congregation that included Baruch Spinoza (b. 1632-d. 1677), whose excommunication in 1656 was imposed by a rabbinic tribunal led by Morteira.

MS. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] measures 19.4 x 15.6 centimeters and is copied in a clear and skilled italic style, with seventeen lines per folio side (or page). It contains 181 folios (made of paper), with the first and last three folios being blank. The illustration on the title page of ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] will be discussed in conjunction with further comments below concerning the copyist, Michael López.