Philologus Hebraeo-Mixtus, Unà cum Spicilegio Philologico, Continente Decem questionum & positorum praeciouè Philologico-Hebraicum & Judaicarum centurias (The Hebrew-Mixed Philologist, together with the Philological Spicilegium, Containing ten questions and positions, especially in the Philological Hebraic and Jewish Centuries)
Utrecht: Francisco Halma, 1682. Second edition. Octavo. 1 plate, [22]pp., 8 plates, 463, [9]pp. Bound in half brown cloth over decorative paper-covered boards (rear board holding by a thread; final leaf loose), raised bands. Black edges. Frontispiece engraving. Title page with publisher's device. Decorative initials and historiated headpiece. Compared to the first edition with eleven illustrations in text, the second edition is illustrated with nineteen images on five plates, and three additional full page engravings of sacred garments, the tabernacle during its erection (one page) and the vessels of the tabernacle and the temple, on eight plates. Additional in-text engraving.
Second improved edition (first ed. 1663) of this introduction to Old Testament Biblical studies including discussions of the historical setting of the biblical corpus, important early versions, and the Talmud. A new frontispiece along with copper-plate engravings now appear in this edition. Some of the engravings depict contemporary Jewish customs (lighting the Chanukah lamp; celebrating Purim in costume; the huts of Sukkot; lighting the Sabbath lamp; marriage beneath the Chuppah; preparation for Passover; baking matzah; mourning on Tisha b'Av) and are the “oldest known etchings of Jewish life in the Netherlands” (Gans). In the first edition these scenes appeared in woodcut versions. "Biblical commentaries were a natural and important product of Hebrew learning after 1560. Broadly speaking these commentaries can be divided into three kinds: pedagogical, philological, and exegetical. Pedagogical commentaries provided either in Latin-Hebrew printings of Jewish Bible commentaries on individual biblical books, or substantial excerpts from them. The purpose of such imprints was to help students learn to read commentary Hebrew." (Stephen G. Burnett, Christian Hebraism in the Reformation Era). Leudsen was among the eminent Protestant contributors to this genre.
Text in Latin with Hebrew passages. Some wear along edges of binding, light scuffing. Back joint of spine cracked, front with small chips. Spine lightly cocked. Numbers inked to front endpapers. Starting at frontispiece. Some age-toning of block. Binding in fair, interior in good+ condition. Item #50608
References: Gans, Memorbook: History of Dutch Jewry from the Renaissance to 1940, p. 80-81. Steinschneider, Bibl. Handbuch 1147.See also Zwarts: De hebreeuwsche typografie van Utrecht, 1938. For a bibliography of Leusden’s works, describing the first editions, see Studia Rosenthaliana 1:42-49.
Price: $500.00