JUDAICA. - URIEL DA COSTA]. - Lot 69

JUDAICA. - URIEL DA COSTA]. Exemplar humanae vitae. [In]: LIMBORCH (Philippe van). De veritate religionis christianae amica cum erudito judaeo. Gouda, Justus van der Hoeve, 1687. In-4, brown calf, double framed with cold filets, fleuron at the corners, ornate spine, red title page, red edges (Binding of the period). First edition of the testamentary autobiography of Uriel da Costa (1585-1640), the Portuguese-born Marrano philosopher, freethinker and precursor of Spinoza. This moving text, written by the author shortly before his suicide, occupies pp. 341-354 of a collection by Limborch, a Calvinist minister. Before ending his life, Uriel calls the whole of humanity to witness the infamous treatment inflicted on him by Amsterdam's Judeo-Portuguese community. [A moving confession by a Portuguese "neo-Christian" of Jewish origin, consumed by religious anxiety and tormented throughout his life by the greatest metaphysical problems (Révah, Des Marranes à Spinoza, 1995, pp. 109 and 119-121). Early handwritten bookplates at the top of the title, the first crossed out: Thomas Fry, and St John's, Oxford. Light foxing. Spine rebound.