Sefer Hanhagat ha-ḥayim
Moses ben Baruch Almosnino, ca. 1515–1580
Sefer Hanhagat ha-ḥayim (Book of Conduct of Life)
Salonika: Yosef ben Yitsḥaḳ Ya’avets, 1564
Ladino originated as a spoken language of the Sephardic Jews residing in Spain before their expulsion in 1492. While predominantly based on Old Spanish dialect, Ladino soon had its own literature, incorporating usage of the Hebrew alphabet and expanding the vocabulary during the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, when following the expulsion, a considerable readership group emerged within the newly shaped Jewish community. Ladino literature expanded beyond merely translations of the sacred texts from Hebrew thanks to the vision of Moses ben Baruch Almosnino, a prominent rabbi, beloved community leader, and scholar who lived in Salonika and Constantinople. Amnosino’s book Hanhagat ha-ḥayim; Libro intitulado regimienṭo dela ṿida (Book of Conduct of Life) presents the ethical work in both Ladino and Hebrew, and was printed in Hebrew script in Salonika in 1564. Almosnino wrote this for his nephew, addressing the entire corpus of values derived from traditional Jewish texts and influenced by Aristotelian philosophy. The publisher, Yosef ben Yitsḥaḳ Yaʻavets, opted for minimal ornamental elements on the title page (shown here), where simple florets frame the Ladino text positioned beneath the Hebrew text.
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