Skip to main content

The second part of The Conciliator

Menasseh ben Israel imprint
Explore the work of Menasseh Ben Israel, rabbi, scholar, philosopher, diplomat and Hebrew printer, through books in the Cecil Roth Collection.
More
Biography of Menasseh ben Israel
More
Vindication of the Jews crop
Early printed witnesses to Menasseh ben Israel’s mission to England, including Christian responses.
More
Roth_723
Apologia por la noble nacion de los Iudios y hijos de Israel
More
Roth_633
Mikveh Yisra’el, Esto es, Esperança De Israel: : Obra con suma curiosidad conpuesta
More
Light of the Jews
Arise Evans, Light for the Iews
More
Roth_778_title_page
William Prynne, Short demurrer to the Jewes long discontinued remitter into England:
More
Roth_636_title_page
Manasseh ben Israel, Vindiciae Judeorum
More
Birkbeck 32.4
Margaret Fox, A loving salutation to the seed of Abraham among the Jewes
More
Untitled
Imprints from Menasseh’s press and its Christian publishers, in Spanish, Portuguese and Hebrew (with Latin) with those of his Jewish competitors.
More
Roth_111_02
Hamishah Humshe Torah: Menasseh ben Israel’s Liturgical Bible: Pentateuch, Five Scrolls and the Prophetic Portions (1)
More
Roth_111_002
Hamishah Humshe Torah: Menasseh ben Israel's Liturgical Bible: Pentateuch, Five Scrolls and the Prophetic Portions (3)
More
Roth_889
TheTratado del Temor Divino: A mystical treatise on the fear of God
More
Roth_104_001
Esrim ve-arba’ah: Complete Hebrew Bible
More
Roth_635_001
Thesouro dos dinim: que o povo de Israel, he obrigado saber, e observar: A Treasury of [religious] Laws which the people of Israel is obligated to know and keep.
More
Roth_704_001
Hamishim derushim yekarim; va-yikra et shemo Giv’at Sha’ul: Fifty precious sermons by Amsterdam’s senior rabbi
More
Roth_260_001
Sefer Asarah ma’amarot: The book of ten [kabbalistic] Addresses
More
Roth_357_001
Shevet Yehudah: The Sceptre of Judah
More
Untitled
This section is devoted to Menasseh as author in the context of Jewish-Christian intellectual contacts in Holland.
More
Roth_629_001
The Conciliator (1)
More
Roth_629_002
Conciliador, o de la conveniencia de los Lugares de la S. Escriptura que repugnantes entre si parecen: The Conciliator (2)
More
Strong Room for. 8vo 1633/MAN_001
the Latin translation of the Conciliator
More
Roth_630_001
De creatione problemata XXX: Thirty problems concerning Creation
More
Roth_631_001
De resurrectione mortuorum libri III: Three books on the resurrection of the dead (1)
More
Roth_631_002
De resurrectione mortuorum libri: Three books on the resurrection of the dead (2)
More
Roth_631_004
De resurrectione mortuorum libri: Three books on the resurrection of the dead (3)
More
Roth_632_001
Of the term of life
More
Roth_634_003
Sefer Nishmat hayim: treatise on the immortality of the soul
More
Roth_563_1
Retrato del tabernaculo de Moseh: Portrait of the Tabernacle of Moses
More
Roth_563_view
Retrato del tabernaculo de Moseh: Portrait of the Tabernacle of Moses (2)
More
Roth_564_003
Retrato del tabernaculo de Moseh: Portrait of the Tabernacle of Moses (3)
More
Research Resources on Menasseh ben Israel
More

The second part of the Conciliador is dedicated to the “most noble, very prudent, and eminent Lords of the Council of the West Indies” – the board members of the Dutch West Indies Company.

Here Menasseh’s ‘pilgrim’ printer's mark appears for the first time, showing a bearded pilgrim on foot, striding out with his rucksack, walking stick and water gourd. The oval frame is inscribed in Portuguese “Apercebido como hu[m] romeiro” - “He appeared as a pilgrim (literally a pilgrim going to Rome).”

Although resonant of the fate of Jewish communities in a period of expulsions, the pilgrim is a peculiar choice of what is essentially Christian imagery. It is suggestive of the Emmaus apparition – Christ appearing to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Yet the figure of the pilgrim had many meanings, and it was capable of Jewish appropriation.

In Salom Italia’s 1642 portrait of Menasseh, the pilgrim appears as the scholar’s coat of arms, with the inscription “Peregrinando quaerimus”, equating wandering with the philosophical quest.