Cardoso (Isaac Fernando) Las Excelencias de los Hebreos, FIRST EDITION, 2 parts in one, large woodcut printer’s device to titles, ornaments, double column, title dusty with small repair to corner and tiny hole, some browning, spotting and scattered marginal staining throughout, burn holes to B4, G3 & Ss3, worm trail to some gatherings towards the end (Ss to Eee) and last text leaf, small repairs to gutter at end, faint scribbles and ownership inscriptions in an early hand to title and final blank verso, modern vellum over boards, within cloth slipcase, [Wolf I, 1265; Rib. Santos 313; Palau 44099; De Boer, Spanish and Portuguese Printing, 315], 4to, David de Castro Tartas, Amsterdam, 1679.  ***First edition of an important work of Jewish apologetics by the former converso, the physician Fernando Cardoso (1604-1681). The work contains information on the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition and has been considered “a masterpiece of Jewish anti-defamation, perhaps the most striking since Josephus's Contra Apionem” (cf. Enc. Judaica and Treasures of Jewish Booklore, Bib. Rosenthaliana, Amsterdam, 1995, p.21).