(Theobaldus?). Thalmut - Objectiones in dicta Thalmut seductoris Judeorum.

AUCTION 12 | Tuesday, March 13th, 2001 at 1:00
Important Hebrew Printed Books and Manuscripts From the Library of the London Beth Din

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Lot 253
(TALMUD)

(Theobaldus?). Thalmut - Objectiones in dicta Thalmut seductoris Judeorum.

FIRST EDITION. Bright Condition. ff.(10). recent wrappers, housed in modern gilt-tooled solander-case. Sm.4to Goff T-12; Hain 15231; BMC I-125

(Strassburg: Johann Prüss 1488)

Est: $8,000 - $10,000
PRICE REALIZED $15,000
Rare first edition of an important anti-Talmudic incunable. A polemical refutation of what the anonymous author (said to be a certain Theobaldus, a Parisian subprior) calls blasphemies, calumnies and errors. Like other anti-Talmudic polemicists, he takes Talmudic figures of speech and rhetorical devices quite literally. Thus, the Talmudic emphasis on the importance of Talmudic study, expressed in the suggestion that God Himself should study the Talmud, is asserted by him to be a blasphemy, implying that God’s knowledge and understanding is not complete - viz. His need to study. As for error, Theobaldus says, the Talmud claim that its detractors will be punished, yet the King of France caused all the books of the Talmud in his realm to be burned, and suffered no punishment for it.” A.J. Karp. From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress (1991) p.43.