GENUINELY RARE, ORIGINAL 1682 EDITION OF "HES-HAYM" [AKA "EITZ CHAIM"].

This
important 17th century work was written by noted rabbi and scholar Solomon de Oliveyra [aka Selomoh
Ben David de Oliveyra, Shlomo de Olivera, D'Oliveyra, et al.] and printed by David de Castro Tartas,
Amsterdam. Author served as rabbi of the Portuguese community in Amsterdam following the death of R.
Yaakov [aka Jacob] Sasportas in 1698. R. Oliveyra wrote a host of respected works in Hebrew and
Portuguese, among them grammars, dictionaries, poems, and translations. Castro Tartas was an esteemed
printer who produced the earliest known Jewish newspaper in Spanish. Both R. Oliveyra and Castro Tartas
were born in Portugal and later relocated to Amsterdam to live freely as Jews. The present treatise contains
R. Olveyra's highly regarded Hebrew-Spanish lexicon, bound with "Kathuv Aramuth" [on Targum]; "Ilan
she-Anafav Meribum" [lexicon] in Portuguese-Hebrew. We could not locate another copy in private hands
and to our knowledge all other known copies are institutionally held [See: OCLC No. 233119701, Jewish
National Library at Jerusalem; OCLC No. 255352902, Berlin State Library; OCLC No. 421108806,
Harvard University and Yivo Institute for Jewish Research; et al.]. Fuks, Amsterdam 476 . Solomon de
Oliveyra (d. 1708) was born in Lisbon, Portugal, the son of the Portuguese scholar David Israel de
Oliveyra of Amsterdam. "He was preacher at several philanthropic institutions, successor of
Moses Raphael de Aguilar as teacher at the Keter Torah in Amsterdam, and member and, after
Jacob Sasportas' death in 1698, president of the rabbinical college of the Spanish-Portuguese
community of the same city. As early as 1652 Oliveyra published a Portuguese translation of the
Canon of Avicenna, which was used by Sousa in his 'Vestigios de Lingua Arabica em Portugal'
(Lisbon, 1798, 1830); but even as a youth he devoted himself to Hebrew poetry, writing
occasional and liturgical poems, generally in imitation of older piyyuṭim. These poems are found
in the author's Hebrew riming dictionary 'Sharshot Gablut' (Amsterdam, 1665), which was
published together with his 'Ayyelet Ahabim,' a Hebrew text-book on rhetoric with excellent
exercises (ib. 1665; Vienna, 1818). For school use, he published: 'Eẓ Ḥayyim,' a
Hebrew-Aramaic-Portuguese lexicon (Amsterdam, 1682); 'Zayit Ra'anan,' a collection of
Talmudic and scientific Hebrew terms with some Hebrew riddles (ib. 1683); 'Ilan she-'Anafaw
Merubbin,' a Portuguese vocabulary, with additions to "'Eẓ Ḥayyim' (ib. 1683); 'Yad Lashon' and
'Dal Sefatayim,' a Hebrew manual and a short Aramaic grammar (ib. 1688); 'Darke No'am,' a
dictionary of rabbinical terms, published with 'Darke Adonai' (ib. 1688). Other works by Oliveyra
are: 'Ṭa'ame ha-Ṭe'amim,' on accents, published together with the text of the Pentateuch (ib. 1665;
the portion on the Psalms was republished with the text of the Psalter, ib. 1670); 'Calendario Fazil
y Curioso de las Tablas Lunares' (with the text of the Pentateuch, ib. 1666, 1726; with 'Circulo de
los Tequphot,' ib. 1687); 'Enseña á Pecadores Que Contiene Diferentes Obras Mediante las
Quales Pide al Hombre Piedad á Su Criador' (ib. 1666), a Portuguese translation of part of Isaiah
Hurwitz's ascetic work; some occasional speeches in Portuguese. A collection entitled 'Peraḥ
Shoshan,' containing various treatises on the fine arts, grammar and logic, the virtues,
thefestivals, etc., as well as several treatises on the calendar, is extant in manuscript" [see:
"Jewish Encyclopedia", 1908]. David de Castro Tartas (c.1630-c.1698), was born in Tartas
[southern France]. Brother of the martyr Isaac de Castro Tartas, he worked first for Manasseh Ben
Israel, but about 1660 set up his own press. Among the earliest works printed by Castro Tartas
were a Pentateuch (1666), and an edition of Rashi on the Pentateuch and the Five Scrolls (1664).
He produced a fine printing of the "Sermoes que pregarao os doctos ingenios do K.K. de Talmud
Torah" (Amsterdam, 1675), the seven sermons that leading...