Ma'amar Tehiyat ha-Metim (Treatise on Ressurection), Maimonides, Rome: [ca. 1835]

18 leaves (12 x 8 1/4 in.; 305 x 210 mm). collation: 16, 28, 34. Written in brown ink on paper in Oriental Hebrew semi cursive script. 20 lines; catchwords; foliated in ink using Hebrew letters. Ink bleeding, bitten through in a few words on final folio. Contemporary paper wrapper. 

Benjamin Richler, Hebrew Manuscripts in the Vatican Library, 2008

A crucial issue in the Maimonidean controversy of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries was whether or not Maimonides affirmed the rabbinic doctrine of corporeal resurrection. Suspicion as to his true position was generated by his indefinite treatment of the subject in his previous works, especially the Moreh Nevukhim (Guide of the Perplexed). In Maʾamar Teḥiyat ha-Metim, Maimonides defends himself against his critics by espousing several rather ambiguous explanations of his earlier statements, including the controversial stance that resurrection is only a temporary prelude to incorporeal existence in the world to come. 

The present manuscript was copied by the apostate , Sebastiano Solari (Rahamim Hezekia Mizrahi–originally of Baghdad), for Don Andrea Molza, Custodian of the Vatican Library. Solari copied at least three other Hebrew manuscripts in the Vatican Library between 1834-36.