Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten In IV. Teilen (Jewish Oddities in Four Parts) Subtitle: Vorstellende Was sich Curieuses und denckwürdiges in den neuern Zeiten bey einigen Jahr=hunderten mit denen in all IV Theile der Welt / sonderlich durch Teutschland / zerstreuten Juden zugetragen. Samt einer vollständigen Franckfurter Juden=Chronick / darinnen der zu Franckfurt am Mayn wohnenden Juden / von einigen Jahr=hunderten / biß auff unsere Zeiten Merckwürdige Begebenheiten enthalten.
Frankfurt and Leipzig: Samuel Tobias Hocker, 1714-1717. Hardcover. Bound in full vellum with handwritten lettering on spines. Octavo. Vol. I.: [24] incl. frontispiece, 580pp., [8], 432, 383 (1)pp. (Franckfurter Juden Ehverlöbniß und Hochzeit). Vol. II.: [8], 358 (1)pp., [30], 320pp., 447 (1), 192pp., plus two registers and a supplement (1717), [38], 48 (1), [60]pp. Frontispiece and ten copper plate engravings, some folding. Part two and three published in 1714, part four in three parts published in 1717 with two chapters published in 1716, see below. Speckled edges. Decorative initials, head- and endpiece woodcuts.
Jewish oddities introducing curiosities and memorable events of Jews in "all four parts" of the world in the last few centuries, particularly of Jews scattered in Germany. Contains a complete Frankfurt Jewish Chronicle, with memorable events relating to Jews living in Frankfurt for centuries, including several elucidating engravings. Part two includes the chapter XXV "about Jews in Frankfurt regarding marriage vows and wedding" on six pages. Part four in three chapters, of which the last includes the apparel regiment for Frankfurt Jews, and a chapter on the celebration on the occasion of the birth of the Crown Prince of Jews in Frankfurt and Prague (both 1716), both with separate title pages and frontispieces but continuous pagination.
Though not addressed to a particular Jewish community, most of the information was gathered in Frankfurt with several texts copied by Schudt, in Hebrew and Yiddish, that are not recorded in elsewhere, e.g. a Selicha authored by Rabbi Shmuel Schotten Katz after the great fire in the Jewish Quarter of Frankfurt in 1711, the Purim play "Ahasuerus-Spiel" (most copies of the play were burnt following a rabbinical decree; thanks to Schudt the text was preserved), two versions of women's incantations for childbirth, regulations of the Jewish community forbidden luxuries, among others.
Schudt's writings are considered a landmark in the history of modern anti-Semitism, mainly due to a chapter dedicated entirely to describing the Jewish body, its shape, colors and smells, promulgating racist anti-Semitism in Europe.
Schudt's book features several copperplate engravings. The most prominent of these is an image of the Judensau (Jews' Sow), which first appeared in medieval sculptures found in churches throughout Germany starting in the 14th century and then was subsequently depicted in woodblock and copperplate engravings. Schudt's version of this notorious anti-Semitic image is an elaborate construction taking motifs from three or more predecessors, presenting a panoply of negative, anti-Semitic tropes including: the blood libel, ritual murder, the devil's association with the Jewish people, Jews "sucking and eating the wealth" from the allegorical pig and their belief in the absolution of sin through the sacrifice of the Azazel during the holiday of Yom Kippur. He includes descriptive text to elucidate the images.
The main part of this folk art image shows three Jewish figures, one sitting backwards atop the sow holding its tail, facing the devil while another Jew kneels behind the pig eating its excrement, encouraged by the devil. A third Jew is lying on his back suckling the sow's milk. On the other side of the sow a high priest stands with the Azazel goat.
Additional engravings depict Jacob blessing Joseph's sons, another two festive processions held in Jewish communities in Germany in 1716 for the birth of Leopold Johann, son of the Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI, and a portrait of Johann Jacob Schudt, among others. Some of the engravings are placed into the text.
With elaborate inscription inked to verso of front free endpaper. Text in German, Gothic script. Some wear, with light staining of lower edge of back cover of Vol. I, more extensive on back cover of Vol. II, here with some light staining of spine, and rubbing of bindings. Some water staining in lower edges of last 200 pages of volume one, not affecting text. Volume one with light erosion at bottom foredge corner of some 200 pages, not affecting text. Volume two with some light fraying of lower foredge corner of Vol. II. Good to very good condition. Item #52850
Johann Jacob Schudt studied theology (Wittenberg) and then orientalism (Hamburg) under Ezra Edzardi. Devoted to Jewish history he published several works but is best known for his "Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten" in three parts, first published in 1714, with part IV, a supplement volume, published in 1717, containg the fourth part in three chapters.
Schudt's standing in the Jewish community of Frankfurt, he taught here at the gymnasium he had been educated at, deteriorated with the publication of the "Oddities." Though he had published "Judaeus Christicida" on his own in 1703, suggesting corporal as well as spiritual punishment for the crucifixion, the writings in "Jewish Oddities" repeats many of the anti-Semitic tropes found in Johann Andreas Eisenmenger two volumes under the title "Entdecktes Judentum" (Judaism Unmasked), first published in 1711. Eisenmenger's then was banned after several complaints by the Jewish bankers Oppenheimer and Wertheim, only to be republished three years later.
Schudt's "Jewish Oddities," however, is still considered a fundamental source for Jewish history, especially in Frankfurt, documenting details of Jewish life, their language, prayers, holidays, dress and customs not found in other sources.
Price: $7,500.00