Chrystostomus Dudulaeus Westphalus. Warhafftige Contrafactur

AUCTION 21 | Thursday, December 04th, 2003 at 1:00
Kestenbaum & Company Holds Inaugural Auction of Hebrew Printed Books & Manuscripts at Their New Galleries

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Lot 22
(Antisemitica)

Chrystostomus Dudulaeus Westphalus. Warhafftige Contrafactur

Chapbook. On title page, engraving of “Jud Ahasverus” - the eternally Wandering Jew, walking stick in hand. Text in German pp. 22. A . 4to. Freimann, pp. 316-317; EJ, Vol XVI, col. 261. (Neither has our Augsburg 1618 edition)

Augsburg: Wilhelm Peter Zimmerman Kupfferstrecher 1618

Est: $400 - $600
PRICE REALIZED $650
Part of the incessant anti-Jewish propaganda in parts of Europe in the Middle Ages - especially Germany, was the dissemination of the legend of the Wandering Jew—in this version named Ahaseuarus—who was doomed to eternally wander the earth for his scorn of Jesus. “Numerous reissues of the chapbook appeared in German in varying versions in the 17th century, nine of which are attributed to the authorship of a (pseudonymous) Chrystostum Dudulaeus Westphalus.” See EJ, Vol. XVI, cols. 259-263. “According to legend while Christ was carrying his cross to Calvary he paused , hoping to rest on a Jew’s doorstep. The man at once drove him away, crying out, “Go hence! Go hence!” Christ then replied: “I go, but ye will roam the earth until I come again.” (Sir Martin Gilbert)