Anti-Jewish Polemic – Cologne, 1490-1500 – Rare Book (Incunable) dating from the Earliest Years of the Printing Press

Anti-Jewish Polemic – Cologne, 1490-1500 – Rare Book (Incunable) dating from the Earliest Years of the Printing Press

Pharetra fidei catholice siue ydonea disputatio inter Christianos et Judaeos. [Presumably Cologne: Heinrich Quentell, ca. 1490-1500]. Latin.

Anti-Jewish work dating from the earliest years of the printing press, written by Theobald of Saxony, a convert from Judaism to Christianity. Hand-painted initials; words initialed with hand-painted capital letters.

This book was written at the height of the Talmud-burning campaign that took place in Paris in the 13th century, following a “judgement” at the hands of a French judicial/theological panel which found the Talmud “guilty, ” and subsequently “sentenced” it to burning. The book’s author, Theobald of Saxony (known also as Thibaud de Sézanne), was among the most prominent of the Jewish-born Christian theologians active in France at the time. Among scholars today, he is credited with having produced the historic translation of segments of the Talmud into Latin, “Extractiones de Talmud”. Printed at the time of the “trial”, it included only “incriminating” segments.

The present book was published around the time of the trial; it cites the Talmud to produce purported proofs promoting its argument against Judaism and what it stands for. It also offers biblical commentary from a Christian perspective, and varied evidence for the obsolescence of the Jewish prophecies. In addition, the work proposes that the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish exile had come about as the result of Divine retribution for the fact that the Jewish people had rejected Jesus and his teachings.

Rare book. Not in NLI; only a handful of copies are found in American libraries.

[12] leaves (11 leaves of text and one blank leaf; 36 rows per column; 31 rows in final leaf). Approx. 20.5 cm. Good condition. Stains. Minor dampstains. Slight tears to edges of several leaves. New binding. Traces of notations on first leaf.

Goff P576; Hain Copinger 12912.

See: Gilbert Dahan, “Les traductions latines de Thibaud de sézanne”, in: Le brûlement du Talmud à Paris 1242-1244, Paris: Cerf, 1999 (French), pp. 95-120.