Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters & Graphic Art
Jun 23, 2017
(Your local time)
USA
Terms of sale
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The auction has ended
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LOT 186:
(MEDICINE)
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Sold for: $850
Estimated price:
$
700 - $1,000
Auction house commission:
25%
VAT: On commission only
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Ephraim Wertheim. Sha’ar Ephraim [responsa, along with charms, potions and folk medicine]
Second (expanded) edition. With Yiddish section of Seguloth and Refuoth plus additional material. Hebrew manuscript leaf with a potion for menstruation inserted before f. 18. ff. (2), 1-2, 4-5, 7-8, 8-12, (1), 16-23. Browned and stained. Later boards, upper cover detached. Sm. 4to. Vinograd Altona 28; Mehlman, 938 (incomplete).
Aaron Katz, Altona: 1736.
A fascinating manual containing folk-remedies and cures for a variety of sicknesses especially for “those in the villages who do not have ready access to doctors.” The author was also known as a kabbalist, indeed the introductory pages record an anecdote whereby he exorcised a dybbuk. The final leaf is a glossary of scientific symbols identified in Yiddish and Latin (transliterated in waybertaytsch letters). The author is clearly quite confident in his medical knowledge and is of the opinion that many of the local gentile doctors were charlatans, who furthermore, had no skills in Latin.
