Rembrandt belonged to the distinguished circle of Menasseh’s personal friends. He illustrated the _Piedra Gloriosa_ published by Menasseh in 1655, and he etched one portrait of the Rabbi, and painted another. The etching, of which a mezzotinted reproduction is presented on the frontispiece of the present work, was produced in 1636 when Menasseh was thirty-two years old. The painted portrait which is in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg is of doubtful authenticity as relating to Menasseh, but I am inclined to regard it as genuine. It represents the Rabbi at a much more advanced age than the etching. The grey hair agrees with Pocock’s description of his appearance in 1656, while the sorrowful expression and full beard may be accounted for by his troubled experiences in London, and especially by the death of his son. When he returned to Middleburg in 1657, he was mourning for his son, and hence his beard would be unshaved. It is not at all improbable that Rembrandt, his old friend of twenty years, saw him at this tragical moment, and that the portrait is a reminiscence of the prematurely aged and broken-hearted Rabbi, then tottering on the verge of the grave. THE HOPE OF ISRAEL (pp. 1–72) BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The title is taken from Jeremiah xiv. 8 (see p. 7). The first edition (pp. xiii, 126, 12mo) was in Spanish, and bore the following title:— ‏מקוה ישראל‎ / Esto es, / Esperança / de Israel. / Obra con suma curiosidad conpuesta / por / Menasseh Ben Israel / Theologo, y Philosopho Hebreo. / Trata del admirable esparzimiento de los diez / Tribus, y su infalible reduccion con los de / mas, a la patria: con muchos puntos, / y Historias curiosas, y declara- / cion de varias Prophecias, / por el Author rectamen- / te interpretadas. / Dirigido a los señores Parnassim del K.K. / de Talmvd Tora. / En Amsterdam. / En la Imprension de / Semvel Ben Israel Soeiro. / Año. 5410. It was dedicated to the Wardens of the Theological School (Talmud Torah), Josseph Da Costa, Ishak Jessurun, Michael Espinosa, Abraham Enriques Faro, Gabriel de Rivas Altas, Ishak Belmonte, and Abraham Franco. The dedication is dated Shebat 13, 5410 [= Jan. 15, 1650], and is headed with the significant quotation in Hebrew of part of verse 1 of Isaiah lxi.: “To preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted.” This dedicatory epistle is only to be found in the Spanish edition. In the Latin and English translations it is replaced by an address “To the Parliament, the Supream Court of England.” The Latin edition (pp. xii, 111, 12mo), which was printed very shortly after the Spanish, bore the following title:— ‏מקוה ישראל‎ / Hoc est, / Spes / Israelis / Authore / Menasseh Ben Israel / Theologo & Philosopho Hebræo / Amstelodami / Anno 1650.