Manuscript - the Polemic Book "Divrei Shalom Ve'Emet" by Rabbi Naftali Hirz Wesseley, from the Time the Book was ...

Manuscript - the Polemic Book "Divrei Shalom Ve'Emet" by Rabbi Naftali Hirz Wesseley, from the Time the Book was Printed - Italy, the 19th Century
Manuscript of the book "Divrai Shalom Ve'Emet", first and second letters, by Rabbi Naftali Hirz Wesseley of Berlin. Nice, orderly handwriting of a scribe, Italian writing. The 19th century.
57 leaves. 17 cm. a few corrections of words and erasures.
The book was divided into four "letters" (booklets), each published separately. The first was printed in Berlin at the beginning of 1782. After it was accepted by the community of Trieste, Italy, the author wrote a second letter to the community. The data noted at t the end of this letter is "the tenth of Iyar 5542 [1782]". Later, two more letters by the author were printed, in which he defended and explained his method which was described in the first letter, due to a polemic that will be recalled hereinafter. The third letter was printed in 1784 and the fourth in 1885.
In the book "Divrei Shalom Ve'Emet", the author emphasized the necessity for secular instruction, including history, geography, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, botany and more, in addition to good manners, virtues and morals. He claimed that "educating Jewish boys in such a manner was a door to knowing the Torah of God".
Many objected to his letter including the most prominent rabbi, the "Noda Bi'Yehuda" and Rabbi David Tebel of Lisa, who, in a sermon he gave on Shabbat Ha'Gadol, called Wessely "a layman, an arrogant, hateful, evil person who blasphemes God and his worshippers".
The booklet, however, was not criticized everywhere. The Trieste community stood by Rabbi Wesseley and even founded a school according to his educational method. He sent the, a missive, which was later published under the title "Rav Tov Le'Veit Yisrael" in which he restrained his previous words and clarified that he had not meant that the study of the Torah will be subordinate to secular studies.
The polemic lasted a long time and eventually, in his final letter, Rabbi Naftali admitted that the change he had hoped for had not occurred.
Undoubtedly, the manuscript was written in Rabbi Naftali's time and when the book was printed!
The friendship between Rabbi Naftali Hirz Wesseley and the Italian scholars is well-known. Among them was the intellectual Reb Yiztchak Shmuel Reggio, who was known as "ha'Yashar of Gorizia". There is another manuscript of one of Wesseley's books handwritten by the Ha'Yashar. It is most likely that the manuscript before us was also handwritten by him or by one of the other Italian scholars.
Condition: Excellent. High-quality leaves. Nice, aligned script.