Esame del mondo. Libera traduzione dall'Originale ebraico di Elia Sarker Ex-Morpurgo Ebreo di Gradisca

4to (225 x 170 mm). [8], 53, [1] pp. Collation: A-F⁴ G³. Contemporary sprinkled wrappers (minimal paper loss on the outer margin), red colored edges. Old restoration to the gutter of the title page using red sealing wax. Some manuscript notes and corrections. First quire loose. Good, genuine copy. 

Provenance. On the title page ownership entry of "Giacomo del De[...]", to whom the copy was donated by the translator ("dono del traduttore"). Stamps of a subsequent owner, Salvatore Sabbadini: born in Trieste in 1873 to a Jewish family, he graduated in Classical Philology from the University of Graz. For decades, he was a respected professor in Trieste, as well as an active scholar of the local Jewish community and a mentor to students such as Scipio Slataper. His life was marked by the political and racial persecution of the twentieth century: arrested by the Austrian authorities in 1909 and conscripted during the First World War, he was expelled from school in 1938 due to the Fascist racial laws. In 1944, he escaped Nazi roundups by hiding in Venice, returning to Trieste in 1946, where he died in 1949 (A. Michela-C. Morgan, La biblioteca e l'archivio del Fondo Salvatore Sabbadini dei Civici musei di storia ed arte di Trieste, Trieste, Civici Musei di storia ed arte, 2003, pp. 39-43).

First edition dedicated to His Serene Highness Mr. Francesco Serafino, Prince of Porcia and Brugnera, one of the most illustrious, ancient and powerful noble houses of Friuli and the Austrian Empire. The work is the celebrated Italian translation and adaptation of Bechinat 'Olam (בחינת עולם), a classic of medieval Jewish ethical and philosophical literature originally composed around 1310 by the Provençal poet and philosopher Yedaya ben Abraham Bedersi. The Italian version was edited by Elia Morpurgo (1740–1830), a leading figure in Enlightenment Judaism ("Haskalah") in the Gorizia area and Friuli. On the title page, Morpurgo signs his translation with the Hebrew name Elia Saker (from Sakar, a translation/adaptation of the surname Morpurgo), clarifying his origins in the community of Gradisca d'Isonzo. The Bechinat 'Olam is a poetic and philosophical treatise, focusing on the vanity of earthly things and the immortality of the soul. The author analyzes the frailties of the human condition, the transitory nature of wealth, power, and the pleasures of the flesh, destined to be swept away by time and death. In contrast to perishable goods, the work extols the pursuit of wisdom, the study of Torah and philosophy, and the practice of moral virtue as the only truly imperishable goods. 

Elia Morpurgo (1740–1830) was one of the most influential figures in Italian Jewry between the 18th and 19th centuries. Born in Gradisca d'Isonzo, he served as head of the local Jewish community. He was a fervent supporter of the Patent of Tolerance promulgated in 1781 by Emperor Joseph II of Habsburg, fighting for the modernization of Jewish education and the civil integration of Jews, while maintaining a profound moral and religious rigor. He collaborated intensively with the typographers of Gorizia on the project of establishing a printing house capable of producing texts in Hebrew and Oriental languages. He began translating the World Examination in his youth, but completed and revised it over twenty years later with his son Samuel (who later converted to Christianity). During the Napoleonic era, Morpurgo continued to play a prominent public role, even being appointed deputy of the Kingdom of Italy. Morpurgo's choice to produce a "free translation" into Italian perfectly reflects the spirit of the Jewish Enlightenment that flourished between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: Morpurgo, a great supporter of Emperor Joseph II's educational reforms, intended to offer Italian and European Jewish youth a great classic of the spiritual tradition, promoting dialogue between Jewish culture and the Christian intellectual world.

Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\TSAE\030868. 

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