Mikveh Israel (Hope of Israel), Menasseh ben Israel, Amsterdam: Samuel Ben Israel Soeiro, 1650

140 pages (6 x 3 1/4 in.; 153 x 84 mm). [14],126 pp. Title page mounted, affecting a few words. Some soil and staining; minor loss to lower margin pp. 113-126, expertly repaired, no loss of text. Contemporary vellum, ties perished; soiled and bumped.

Vinograd Amsterdam, 175.

first edition of one of menasseh ben israel's most important works

Menasseh ben Israel (1604–1657), was born in Portugal to a Marrano family, and escaped in 1614 to Amsterdam where he became a renowned scholar, printer and diplomat.  In addition to his own prolific scholarly works, he founded the earliest Jewish printing press in Amsterdam (1626), where he published works in Hebrew, Yiddish, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and English. His broad theological expertise allowed him to present Judaism in a sympathetic manner acceptable to the Christian world. 

A prominent part of the text of the present work is the narrative of Aharon Levi, alias Antonio de Montezinos, who had recently returned from travels in South America, where, he claimed to have encountered Indians in Ecuador who were descendants of the tribes of Reuben and Levi, and who continued many of the practices of ancient Judaism.  The appearance of Montezinos with his amazing tale, in conjunction with widespread speculation on the part of contemporary Christians as to the whereabouts of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, prompted Menasseh to write this book. It was published by Menasseh's son, Samuel Ben Israel Soeiro.

The work proved so popular that it was eventually printed in Dutch, Latin, Hebrew, Yiddish, and in English. His writings proved especially influential in England, where Jews had been forbidden to settle, since their expulsion in the late 13th century. In 1652 Menasseh dedicated the English edition of this work, The Hope of Israel, to the English Parliament in an effort to solicit their goodwill and thereby helped in bringing about the eventual readmission of the Jews to England.