Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller
Item #48861 Historie der Joden, die t’Sedert de Verstooringe Jerusalems in alle Landen verstroyt zijn, in dry Deelen beschreven (A History of the Jews, Who Have Been Scattered Throughout the World Since the Destruction of Jerusalem). Abraham Coster.
Historie der Joden, die t’Sedert de Verstooringe Jerusalems in alle Landen verstroyt zijn, in dry Deelen beschreven (A History of the Jews, Who Have Been Scattered Throughout the World Since the Destruction of Jerusalem)
Historie der Joden, die t’Sedert de Verstooringe Jerusalems in alle Landen verstroyt zijn, in dry Deelen beschreven (A History of the Jews, Who Have Been Scattered Throughout the World Since the Destruction of Jerusalem)
Historie der Joden, die t’Sedert de Verstooringe Jerusalems in alle Landen verstroyt zijn, in dry Deelen beschreven (A History of the Jews, Who Have Been Scattered Throughout the World Since the Destruction of Jerusalem)

Historie der Joden, die t’Sedert de Verstooringe Jerusalems in alle Landen verstroyt zijn, in dry Deelen beschreven (A History of the Jews, Who Have Been Scattered Throughout the World Since the Destruction of Jerusalem)

Amsterdam: For Gerrit Willemsz (by Adriaan Roest), 1649. Second edition. Hardcover. Three parts, small octavo. A-X8 (168 leaves: G5 signed F5; I2 as H2; I4 as H4). [18], 293, [25, index]pp. Woodcut printer’s device at title, woodcut lettrines. Contemporary vellum with exposed thongs (lightly soiled). Old entry at front pastedown. Occasional faint dampstain at bottom margin, else a very good copy with clean text throughout.

Second edition of this polemical history by “a strident condemner of the Jews” (Sprunger). First published at Rotterdam by Jan van Waesberghe in 1608, the present work is the earliest reaction in print to the presence of Jews and their religion in the Dutch Republic (van Rooden). Citing M. Bodian’s Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation, R. Po-Chia Hsia describes the cultural context: “Coming initially in the 1590s as Portuguese merchants and Christian converts, the so-called ‘New Christians’, Sephardic Jews in fact, were welcomed by the Regents of Holland but were strongly opposed by the Reformed clergy. When the conversos reverted to the open practice of Judaism, reaction from the Reformed Church was fierce. The predikant Abraham Coster [1575-1620] attacked the Sephardim as an ‘unclean people’ who sought to build a public synagogue ‘in which they can perform their evil and foolish ceremonies and spew forth their gross blasphemies against Christ and his holy gospels, as well as their curses against the Christians and Christian authorities’”. The present edition was later re-issued the following year (with identical collation and pagination), but designated as “Den 2den druck, van nieuws oversien”. Very Good. Item #48861

References: R. Po-Chia Hsia, “Introduction” & P. van Rooden “Jews and Religious Toleration in the Dutch Republic”, [in:] Calvinism and Religious Toleration, 3; 137. Sprunger, Trumpets from the Tower, 81. NNBW 8, 320: “Dit werk is een poging om de Amsterdamsche vroedschap te bewegen het bouwen van een nieuwe openbare synagoge te beletten”.

Price: $1,250.00

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