A Journey to Jerusalem, Containing the Travels of Fourteen Englishmen in 1667, to the Holy Land, and Other Memorable Places Noted in Scripture. To Which is Prefixed, Memorable Remarks Upon the Ancient and Modern State of the Jewish Nation
Hartford: Printed by J. Babcock, 1796. First edition. Hardcover. 12mo. 132pp. Half-leather over blue paper covered boards, protected by modern mylar. Blue front free endpapers. Later edition of the original published in 1794.
This work, published many years after Crouch's death is his printing of this fascinating travelogue to the Holy Land (Palestine) during the Ottoman era. Included in the publication is "A Relation of the Great Council of the Jews in the Plains of Hungary, in 1650, to Examine the Scriptures Concerning Christ", by Samuel Beert, describing an attempt to convert Hungarian Jews to Christianity; and "An Account of the Wonderful Delusion of the Jews by a False Messiah at Smyrna, 1666", detailing the events surrounding Sabbatai Zevi, who claimed to be the Jewish messiah in 1666.
Leather spine crudely cut with blue boards with heavy scuffing and some water exposure to upper back cover near spine, lightly at front cover. Starting at inside front cover. Water staining throughout block of two inches along bottom of block and a quarter inch along foredge and top edge throughout block, diminishing towards end of block. Block age-toned. g- to g+. Item #54997
Nathaniel Crouch (born c. 1632) was an English printer and bookseller, and under the pseudonym Richard Burton (or R.B.) wrote historical books as well. As a historian, he is considered a hack, borrowing material from other books and rewriting them under his pseudonym, then publishing and marketing them under the Crouch imprint. Though he was the type of writer/publisher denounced in the following century by writers such as Samuel Butler and Alexander Pope, more recent assessments of his life and career see him as an important figure in the development of historiography, especially in the popularization of a hitherto high-culture genre of discourse.
Later edition of Singerman # 0077.
Price: $675.00