חכמת שלמה — CHOCHMAT SHLOMO
Naphtali Herz Wessely (Naftali Hertz Weisel / נפתלי הירץ ויזל)
Berlin, 1780 / תק"מ
First Edition — Complete — Rare Early Haskalah Work
An important and fascinating Hebrew book from the earliest period of the Jewish Enlightenment: Naphtali Herz Wessely's Hebrew rendering of the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon, accompanied by his extensive commentary רוח חן (Ruach Chen).
Published in Berlin in 1780, this is the first edition of the work in this form and one of the significant early publications of Naphtali Herz Wessely (1725–1805), among the leading intellectual figures of the early Haskalah and a close associate of Moses Mendelssohn.
Collation: [12], 130 leaves. Folio, approximately 33 cm. COMPLETE.
The Wisdom of Solomon is one of the ancient Jewish works generally classified among the Apocrypha / Sefarim Chitzonim. Although not incorporated into the Jewish biblical canon, it circulated in antiquity and became part of the Septuagint and subsequently the Christian biblical tradition.
The work presents itself in the voice of King Solomon and is devoted to wisdom, righteousness, divine judgment, immortality and the relationship between human wisdom and the wisdom of God.
The Jewish connection to the work has a particularly intriguing history. Nachmanides — the Ramban — refers in his introduction to his Torah commentary to a work called "Chochmata Rabbata d'Shlomo Malka" — "The Great Wisdom of King Solomon." Wessely prominently invokes this tradition on the title page of the present edition.
Wessely rendered the work into elegant biblical-style Hebrew and accompanied it with his own substantial explanatory commentary, which he called Ruach Chen — רוח חן.
This was not a casual project for Wessely. The work occupied an important place in the development of his literary career. His translation had apparently circulated in manuscript decades before its eventual publication. In the introductions to the printed edition, Wessely discusses translation, the authorship of the ancient work, and his approach to its interpretation.
The result is an unusual meeting point between an ancient Jewish-Hellenistic text and the new Hebrew literary culture emerging in eighteenth-century Europe.
Naphtali Herz Wessely, also known as Hartwig Wessely or Naphtali Hirz Weisel, was one of the formative personalities of the eighteenth-century Jewish Enlightenment.
Born in Hamburg and raised largely in Copenhagen, Wessely came from a prosperous Jewish mercantile family. His education combined intensive traditional Jewish learning with an unusually broad knowledge of European languages and literature.
Of particular interest, his early rabbinic education was under the celebrated Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschütz, one of the greatest rabbinic scholars of the eighteenth century.
Wessely subsequently became involved in commerce and banking, and his business affairs brought him to Amsterdam and Berlin. In Berlin he entered the circle surrounding Moses Mendelssohn, becoming one of the important literary figures associated with the early Haskalah.
His scholarly interests centered particularly on the Hebrew language. His Gan Na'ul, published in Amsterdam in 1765–66, examined Hebrew roots, meanings and synonyms and established his reputation as a Hebrew philologist.
Wessely later participated in Mendelssohn's celebrated Biur project, contributing the commentary to the Book of Leviticus.
He was not merely a scholar but a major figure in the revival of Hebrew as a sophisticated literary language. His prose and poetry exercised considerable influence upon the generation of Hebrew writers who followed him.
Wessely's historical importance extends considerably beyond this particular book.
Two years after the publication of Chochmat Shlomo, he issued the work for which he became especially famous — and controversial — Divrei Shalom Ve'Emet (דברי שלום ואמת), "Words of Peace and Truth," 1782.
Written in the aftermath of Emperor Joseph II's reforms, it advocated significant changes in Jewish education, particularly the addition of secular knowledge and European languages alongside traditional Torah study.
The resulting controversy made Wessely one of the central figures in the emerging Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment.
Wessely cannot simply be understood as a secularizing modernist. He emerged from a traditional rabbinic education, remained deeply engaged with Biblical Hebrew and classical Jewish literature, and repeatedly defended his religious commitments. His career reflects precisely the intellectual tensions that made late eighteenth-century European Jewish history so consequential.
Chochmat Shlomo, published before the great controversies of the 1780s, is therefore especially interesting. It shows Wessely at the point where traditional Jewish scholarship, Hebrew philology, European learning and the emerging Haskalah were beginning to intersect.
Modern scholarship has emphasized the special place Chochmat Shlomo occupied in Wessely's intellectual development.
Although published in 1780, Wessely stated that his translation had circulated in manuscript form many years earlier. In his introduction he effectively presented Chochmat Shlomo as a foundation of his subsequent literary work.
The volume is also notable for its prefatory material, including approbatory poems and writings associated with contemporary Jewish scholars and writers, among them David Franco Mendes and Solomon Dubno, another important early figure of the Mendelssohn circle.
The book consequently belongs to a remarkable moment in Jewish intellectual history — Berlin on the eve of the great Haskalah debates, when Mendelssohn, Wessely, Dubno and their circle were reshaping the possibilities of Hebrew literature and Jewish intellectual life in modern Europe.
Title: ספר חכמת שלמה — Sefer Chochmat Shlomo
Commentary: רוח חן — Ruach Chen
Author / Translator / Commentator: Naphtali Herz Wessely (Naftali Hertz Weisel)
Place: Berlin
Date: 1780 / תק"מ
Edition: First Edition
Format: Folio
Collation: [12], 130 leaves
Language: Hebrew
Subject: Apocrypha; Wisdom of Solomon; Hebrew literature; Haskalah; Biblical commentary; Jewish Enlightenment
Complete copy.
The original text block is in good to very good condition for a Hebrew book printed in 1780, with expected age toning, staining, occasional spotting, wear, marginal imperfections and other signs of age and use. Some leaves show old staining and minor edge defects. Please examine the photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the condition description.
The book has been rebound in modern boards, with a black spine lettered in gilt:
CHOCHMAT SHLOMO — BERLIN 1780
The binding is sound and protective but is not contemporary with the book.
There are also old manuscript inscriptions/ownership notations on the volume. These have not been definitively identified and are offered without attribution.
Despite its age of nearly two and a half centuries, the book remains an attractive, substantial and complete example of this important early Hebrew publication.
An unusual opportunity to acquire a complete first edition of one of Naphtali Herz Wessely's significant early works, published in Berlin at the dawn of the Haskalah.
Of interest to collectors of:
Early Hebrew Printing • Judaica • Haskalah • Moses Mendelssohn & His Circle • Hebrew Literature • Biblical Scholarship • Apocrypha • German Jewish History • 18th-Century Hebrew Books
Copies are held in major research and rare-book collections, and examples appear only occasionally on the market.
Berlin, 1780 — First Edition — Complete.
Please review all photographs carefully for condition and contents. The book pictured is the exact copy offered for sale.