P. [68], l. 36. “Did Mr. Broughton gaine upon a learned Rabbi.” See Broughton, “Ovr Lordes Famile” (Amst., 1608), and “A Reqvire of Agreement” (1611).
THE HUMBLE ADDRESSES
(pp. 73–103)
Bibliographical Note
For the origin of this tract, and the probable date and circumstances of its preparation, see Introduction, pp. xxxviii-xxxix.
There are two editions, neither of which bears any imprint or date. Both are 4to, but one has 26 pp. and the other 23 pp. It is difficult to say whether, and which, one of these two versions is a revision of the other, as the only difference between them is that the following sentence is added at the end of the 23 pp. text: “Which is the close of Rabbi Menesse Ben-Israel, a Divine, and Doctor in Physick in the Strand over against the New-Exchange in London.” The British Museum copy of this edition is dated in MS. “Novemb. 5th (London), 1655.” This edition must have been printed after Menasseh’s arrival in London, and it is probable that the other is the Libellus Anglicus of which he speaks in his letter to Felgenhauer in February 1655, and which, consequently, we may assume was printed in Amsterdam.
The latter was reprinted in Melbourne in 1868, with an introduction by the late Rev. A. F. Ornstien:—
“To / His Highnesse / the / Lord Protector / of the / Commonwealth of / England, Scotland and Ireland / the Humble Addresses / of / Menasseh Ben Israel, a Divine, and / Doctor of Physic, in behalfe / of the Jewish Nation / 1655. / Reprinted by H. T. Dwight, / Bookseller and Publisher, Bourke Street East, Melbourne, / 1868.”
English reprints of the 23 pp. text have been published in the Jewish Chronicle, Nov.-Dec. 1859, and in Kayserling’s “Life of Menasseh ben Israel,” with annotations in 1877 (Miscellany of Hebrew Literature, Second Series, pp. 35–63). According to Barbosa Machado (“Biblioteca Lusitana,” vol. iii. p. 457) a Spanish translation was published in London simultaneously with the first English edition. Its title is given as follows:—
“Las Humildes suplicaciones En nombre de la Nacion de los Judios a su Alteza el Señor Protector Oliver Cromwell de la Republica de Inglaterra, Scocia, y Yrlandia. Traduzido del Original Ingles. En Londres, 1655.”