La Créquini`ere, de. The Agreement of the Customs of the East-Indians With those of the Jews, and other Ancient People. John Toland (transl.)

AUCTION 39 | Thursday, April 03rd, 2008 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters & Graphic Art

Back to Catalogue Download Catalogue

Lot 178
(INDIA)

La Créquini`ere, de. The Agreement of the Customs of the East-Indians With those of the Jews, and other Ancient People. John Toland (transl.)

First English Edition. Four copper engravings illustrating ritual scenes as well as sacred buildings pp. (2), 10, (4), 159, (1). Plate to p. 61 loose. Browned. Modern boards. 8vo Roth, Magna Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, p. 380, no. 6

London: W. Davis 1705

Est: $800 - $1,200
PRICE REALIZED $600
The first English translation of this work, which compares Jewish customs with traditions from India. Includes essays on circumcision, eating and drinking habits, manners of warfare, paganism, sacred buildings, etc. The English deist John Toland (1670-1722) had a distinct interest in the comparative scholarship of Biblical Jewish culture with other ancient cultures. Other than the translation of the present work, he also published “Adesidaemon and Origines Judaicae” (1709), in which he maintained that Jews were originally Egyptian and that the true Mosaic Institutions perished with Moses. The last of his theological works were “Nazrenus, or Jewish, Gentile and Mahometan Christianity” (1718) and “Tetradymus” (1720), whereby he followed Reimarus and the rationalistic school in Germany of interpreting the Old Testament miracles by the naturalistic method. See Encyclopedia Britannica (1911), Vol. 26, p. 1049