Iggeret ha-Kodesh, Nahmanides, Basle: Ambrosius Frobenius, 1580

15 leaves (5 ½ x 3 ½ in.; 140 x 90 mm). Title within typographic border. Lightly browned, stained and spotted. Owner’s inkstamps (N.B. Friedman and Kinyan Kaspi) on title; library stamps (Schocken) on verso of first and last leaves; signature of censor (Domenico Irosolomitano, 1596), though uncensored. Modern quarter vellum with boards.

Rabbi Nahum Dov Baer Friedman of Sadigora (d. 1883), renowned hassidic bibliophile. His stamps (N.B. Friedman and Kinyan Kaspi) on title. Each work in his library bore a stamp indicating its source: Kinyan Kaspi (purchased with my funds), Yerushat Avotai (inheritance) and Minhat Shai (gift). 

Vinograd, Basle 1580.

Kabbalistic letter on marital relations traditionally, though wrongly, attributed to Moses ben Nahman, also known by the Hebrew acronym, Ramban, or by the Greek, Nahmanides. Many scholars now believe the work was written by the thirteenth century kabbalist, Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla. Iggeret ha-Kodesh is primarily an ethical work that imbues a mystical significance to human sexual behavior, contending that proper sexual relations between man and wife in this world contribute to the achievement of divine unity in the supernal realms. The work should also be seen as a polemical response to both Aristotle and Maimonides who regarded sexual activity as being a lower, less spiritual, level of life. Because of its brevity and extremely popular subject matter, Iggeret ha-Kodesh was frequently reprinted, and often added as an appendix to other works.

Formerly in the collection of Rabbi Nahum Dov Baer Friedman of Sadigora (d. 1883), renowned hassidic bibliophile. Each work in his library bore a stamp indicating its source: Yerushat Avotai (inheritance), Minhat Shai (gift), or as in the present volume, Kinyan Kaspi (purchased with my own funds).