FINI, Fino.

FIRST EDITION, vol. 1 of 2. 4to. ff. [20], 343. Roman letter, double column. Title within charming woodcut border with owl, tendrils and armorial tower with FT (Federico Torresano’s device), woodcut author’s portrait to centre, decorated initials, occasional typographic maniculae. Few lower edges untrimmed, light water stain to lower outer blank corner of first half, purplish to last few ll., light water stain at upper gutter or outer blank margin of final gatherings, few marginal ink spots. A very good copy in contemporary Italian limp vellum, yapp edges, lacking ties, spine lining from C15 rubricated ms, soiled, traces of old label to spine, all edges blue. C16 marginalia throughout, occasionally smudged, but perfectly legible.

A very good copy of vol. I only of the first edition, with early annotations, of this scarce Aldine Judaicum, printed by Pietro Nicolini de Sabio for Federico Torresano, associate of Paulus Manutius at the time. Each of the vols is textually self-contained. Fino Fini (d.1519) was notary and ducal bookkeeper in Ferrara. An influential contribution to anti-Jewish polemic of the time, ‘In Judaeos flagellum’ was ‘a 1,200–page treatise which condemned the wickedness of the Talmud, and encouraged his readers to see Jews as heretics deviating from the truth of their scriptures’ (Aron-Beller, p.22). ‘Towards the end of the C15 and during the C16, a flow of immigrants arrived in the Estense duchy, German Jews from the north, Italian Jews from the south, and Spanish and Portuguese Jews from the west who came in two main waves of immigrations. The first wave was a result of the Spanish expulsion of Jews in 1492 and lasted until 1505, and the second followed the establishment of the Portuguese Inquisition in 1536, which caused many conversos to leave’ (Aron-Beller, p.20). This last was probably the occasion for the posthumous printing of this work. Edited by Fini’s son, Daniel, it bears a dedication to Duke Ercole II, dated 1537.

Prefaced by a 40-page table of contents, for both volumes, it is an encylopaedia of early C16 anti-Judaic theology and ecclesiastical law, especially concerned with debunking the Talmud. Chapter I discusses the genealogies of the Jews and Christians from the Patriarchs, the ‘mysteries’ of Mosaic law, its treatment of Christ, and the figures of the prophets. Chapter 2-5 tackle, with the help of Old Testament passages, the Jews’ critique of Christian doctrines in great detail: e.g., Christ’s virgin birth, his human and divine nature, the New Law brought by Christ vs the Old Judaic Law, with a comparative discussion of the immutability of God, the sacraments, circumcision, baptism, biblical prophecies and the differences between Christians and Jews resulting from the coming of Christ. Chapter 6 focuses solely on the Messiah, with all the theological doctrines and implications derived from him. The slightly later annotator was a careful student of this text, highlighting and/or glossing passages on Christ’s virgin birth, considered false by the Jews, theories derived from St Augustine, circumcision, whether Christ was the Messiah, and others. A most interesting, scarce Aldine.