Single-click any image of this book, for an enlargement.

Works of Jewish controversy written by Jews and published in England in the period to 1720 were few in number and are now very uncommon. Those controversial treatises actually in Hebrew were and are particularly rare. Searches via ESTC, RLIN, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 locate fewer than a dozen copies of this text in U.S. libraries.

•  Roth, Magna Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, 336; Palau 191134; ESTC T210368. 18th-century diced russia. Joints and board edges rubbed with joints tender and starting at tops and bottoms. Some margin pencil marks but a clean, complete copy of a scarce and very important book.

A successful novelist and journalist, Jones was wholeheartedly loyal to the Confederacy, and convinced right up until the end that the North would never conquer a united, determined South; he was alsonotably anti-Semitic, and there are a number of references here to the Jews being largely responsible for the country's economic woes.

•  Howes J220; Nevins I, 115 & II, 173.   Publisher's brown cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; sunned and with some discolorations; corners rubbed and spine heads pulled/chipped. Ex–social club library: front pastedown with inked numerals in a 19th-century hand (partially obscured), title-page pressure- and rubber-stamped, a few other pages rubber-stamped. Front free endpaper of vol. I lacking. Pages with light waterstaining to upper inner portions in vol. I One leaf in vol. II with tear extending into text, without loss.  (26297)

The two volumes are illustrated with a total of69 copper-engraved plates (out of 70 called for), including a number of maps, all engraved by several different hands after the work of various artists.

•  CBEL, II, 1492; ESTC T112662; Lowndes 1236; Schweiger, I, 179.   Period-style quarter mottled calf with marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges blind-tooled, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Front fly-leaf of vol. II with 19th-century inked gift inscription. Vol. I lacking list of subscribers; vol. II lacking one plate (“The Death of Caius Caesar”). Light to moderate spotting and staining throughout; some offsetting to and around plates. One leaf torn from outer edge, narrowly missing text. A sound, handsome set fine for working or playing with.  (24538)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped red leather title-label (a little darkened). Three leaves with offsetting from now-absent laid-in item. Some upper corners bumped; one leaf with repairs to inner margin, touching but not obscuring text. Endpapers and some edges with a little soiling; generally, quite clean.  (25365)

Jewish

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Lightfoot (1602–75) was a noted Hebraist and Biblical scholar; Lowndes says of his works that “the writings of Dr. Lightfoot are an invaluable treasure to the biblical student.”

•  ESTC R21614; Wing (2nd ed.) L2052; Lowndes 1359.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped title and publication labels. Title-page institutionally rubber-stamped. Pp. 145–48 (the end of the “Christian History...XXXIIII” section) bound in between pp. 152 and 153, with annotations in an early inked hand noting the error. Pages trimmed closely, taking part of title-page border and in a few instances affecting the catchwords or final lines of text. Waterstaining, mostly to lower outer portions.  (24853)

This is a lovely, “gentleman's library” edition, well printed with generous margins.

Provenance: Two text pages and back pastedown with flourished ownership inscriptions of Richard Wood, Jr., dated 1780.

•  ESTC T114245; Graesse, IV, 243; Lowndes 1380; Allibone 1113–14.   Contemporary speckled calf, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding lightly rubbed/scuffed overall, joints starting from top and front hinge (inside) starting; spine with a chip and a small paper label. Front pastedown with three bookplates most tantalizingly layered over one another, the most recent being from a 19th-century social club library; front free endpaper with pencilled and inked numerals in an early hand. Pages age-toned and faintly to moderately spotted; minor offsetting from frontispiece to title-page.  (26302)

•  ESTC T113648.   Recent quarter calf, old style; raised bands, gilt ruling above and below the bands as accents, gilt center devices in spine compartments. Deep red spine labels lettered in gilt; marbled paper sides, with dark wedge of soil crossing bottom 3/4-inch of front cover’s paper and line of same soil also to turn-ins of back cover. Faint off-setting to top and bottom margins of early leaves from old binding; medium-light waterstains in margins of index (i.e., last 6 leaves), and the odd spot or bit of soil elsewhere. Generally, a very nice clean book.  (25318)

Provenance: From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.

•  ESTC R15888; Steineschneider 6769.1; Rosenthal, Bibliotheca Magica et Pneumatica, 3822; Wing (rev. ed.) M2855; Madan, III, 2277.   19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper. Title-page soiled;text paper a little brittle at edges and lower outer corners (and some margins) with waterstaining; ex-library with minimal markings, but including a call number on spine in white. All edges red.  (13778)

•  STC (rev.) 17947; ESTC S121879; Allibone 1325; Vancil 165. On Minsheu, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   Period-style morocco framed and panelled in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with original gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments (signed by Grace Bindings in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in). Title-page institutionally rubber-stamped. Some age-toning and light to moderate spotting; one leaf with tear from outer margin into several lines of text, without loss; last leaf with small hole affecting a few words. (21047)

Also present in the volume is a section of didactic poetry, rhymed rules for pious people.

Moses Eliezer Beilinson was an important figure in Eastern European Jewish letters during the 19th century, who opened his printing press in Odessa sometime in the 1860s.

We gratefully acknowledge the immense help in cataloguing this work that Arthur Kiron (Schottenstein-Jesselson Curator of Judaica Collections University of Pennsylvania Library) has provided us. Any errors are all ours.

•  Original printed wrappers, a bit dusty and dog-eared; front one beginning to separate from bottom. Occasional bug-spotting or waterdrop stain.  (24651)

•  Publisher's tan cloth and blue d/j printed in white and “gold” with illustration. Corners bumped.  (22344)

•  Contemporary vellum over paste boards. Ex-library: Call number label removed from spine with noticeable result, bookplate, library name rubber-stamped on bottom edges of closed book, pressure-stamp on title-page. Librarian's pencil markings. Withal, a very nice copy.  (21305)

This set includes two volumes of supplemental text, adding a number of entries. The first edition was followed by two volumes of supplemental plates, not present here and not called for: Graesse describes this edition as “sans grav.”

The pagination is erratic in a number of places; there is a numbering gap from 2342 to 2351 between vols. IV and V, but the text and signatures are uninterrupted.

Uncommon: OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings of this second edition.

Provenance: Most volumes with small inked ownership inscription in an outer margin: “G.R.W.” the mark of William Rollinson Whittingham (1805–79), fourth Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and an enthusiastic book collector.

•  Brunet, IV, 851; Graesse, V, 429. Not in Sabin.   Contemporary half binding, recently rebacked with tan paper, spines with printed paper labels; boards rubbed and faded with small chips, one vol. with front cover waterstained. Foxing almost throughout, generally no worse than moderate; light waterstaining in upper margins of vol. I; one leaf in vol. VII with lower outer portion torn away, with loss of words from about 18 lines on each side. Vol. II with printer's error replacing pp. 1065–72 with duplicates of pp. 1057–64; pagination erratic in other places. Most vols. with ownership mark as above; vol. VI with one pencilled and one inked marginal annotation.  (25862)

Judaism

The work was printed in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where Priestley settled in 1782, when his liberal political opinions and defense of the French Revolution (in addition to his status as a nonconforming minister of questionable orthodoxy) obliged him to emigrate from England to the United States.

Provenance: Both title-pages inscribed by N. Irwin.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 4912 & 7121. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Title-pages with faint impression of a once-pencilled shelf number; some leaves lightly foxed.

Judaism

Click the image to the left for an enlargement.

This work was printed in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where Priestley settled in 1782, his liberal political opinions and defense of the French Revolution (in addition to his status as a nonconforming minister of questionable orthodoxy) having obliged him to emigrate from England to the United States.

Provenance: Each title-page inscribed by N. Irwin.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 2933 & 4913. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, paper darkened at edges and/or turn-ins on some volumes, most notably vol. IV; spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Title-pages with faint impression of a once-pencilled shelf number; a few page edges slightly ragged; some instances of small spots of foxing, mostly in margins, and varying degrees of offsetting. Please note these are octavo values — they're substantial, but we think the photo may make them look a bit taller than they actually are.