Menasseh ben Israel — Even yeqarah / Piedra gloriosa o de la estatua de Nebuchadnesar (1655)

A large ornamental drop cap 'S' features floral and scrollwork motifs.Some friends asked me to explain the dream of that great Statue of Nebuchadnezzar and its interpretation. And although the matter has already been threshed by many, I set myself to write about it because of the heroic subject it treats, and the complete history of the Hebrew people until the end of days and the time of the Messiah. And since I base all my doctrine on the ancient sages (as you will see, reader, in so many texts cited on a single subject), you will hardly find one in which I have not added some original thought. I declared the dream and its interpretation through testimonies of various prophets to whom God revealed the same dream, albeit in a different way and with singular convenience, and I concluded the work with another dream of the same Daniel. Together, for greater clarity of what is said, I have made 4 figures in plates, with great propriety