Pardes Shoshanim ... Asirei ha-Tikvah (Garden of Roses...Prisoners of Hope), Joseph ben Isaac Penso (de la Vega), Amsterdam: Joseph Athias, 1673

8vo (5¾ x 3½ in.; 145 x 90 mm). pp. [20], 1-54; collation: a^{2, A6, b8, c4, 1-68, 76=74 leaves, title within a border of printer's ornaments, decorative woodcut initial; a few tiny mends in fore-margin of title and two other leaves, lower blank margin of last leaf renewed, lightly browned. Antique tan calf, gilt floral stamps and blindruled panels.}

Vinograd, Amsterdam 405; Fuks and Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Netherlands, 1585-1815, # 396; Steinschneider, 5975, 1

8vo (5 ¾ x 3 ½ in.; 145 x 90 mm). pp. [20], 1-54; collation: a2, A6, b8, c4, 1-68, 76=74 leaves, title within a border of printer's ornaments, decorative woodcut initial; a few tiny mends in fore-margin of title and two other leaves, lower blank margin of last leaf renewed, lightly browned. Antique tan calf, gilt floral stamps and blindruled panels.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Joseph Penso de la Vega, (1650–1692), was a Marrano writer and merchant who lived mainly in Amsterdam, where he was a member of several literary academies and produced numerous and varied works. Among his earliest efforts was a Hebrew drama, Asirei ha-Tikvah (Prisoners of Hope), an allegorical depiction of the victory of the will over the passions. Written in 1668 when Joseph was only 17 the work is dedicated to the author's father, Isaac Penso. In addition to the approbation of the Ma'amad (the Jewish community governing board) it includes an amazing twenty-one separate tributes and accolades in Hebrew, Spanish and Latin written by a who's who of contemporary Jewish literati in seventeenth century Amsterdam.

Although Penso wrote numerous funeral orations, wedding verses, and similar occasional pieces, as well as more than 200 epistles to different European statesmen, Asirei ha-Tikvah remains his only published Hebrew work. He is best known for his Spanish treatise on the workings of the stock exchange, Confusion de Confusiones, published in 1688 and still considered one of the best early descriptions of dealings in stocks and shares.